Bhaichung Bhutia: 'Sportstar inspired our generation'

At the Sportstar Aces Awards in Mumbai on Thursday, former India football captain Bhaichung shares his special memory with the magazine.

"As a player, we were dying to get covered by Sportstar," Bhaichung Bhutia said.

Bhaichung Bhutia goes down memory lane at the mention of Sportstar and says the magazine inspired his generation to become professional footballers.

"When I was a kid, I used to go to the school library just for Sportstar. We would tear and steal pages of footballers who were covered. The magazine covers all sports, but we used to only preserve the football pages and posters to preserve them as photographs in our rooms [in the boarding school].

"It inspired our generation to become professional footballers because it covered a lot of great footballers. It just motivates you. As a player, we were dying to get covered by Sportstar and getting our pictures there," the former India football captain said at the Sportstar Aces Awards function here on Thursday.

Read: 'Being on Sportstar's cover like a childhood memory revived'

He stressed that athletes or professional players need recognition at some point of their careers to get inspired and aim higher.

"Players don’t play for awards but when they get recognised for their hard work and dedication, they are always going to be inspired by such rewards," he said.