David Beckham and Ronaldo caused a stir at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Not because the two football stars made an appearance but because their namesakes are members of India’s cycling team.
Last week, David Beckham Elkatohchoongo, 20, and Ronaldo Laitonjam Singh, 21, sped around the steeply banked curves of the Chun’an Jieshou Sports Centre Velodrome.
While Ronaldo lost to Japan’s Shinji Nakano in the last-16 of the men’s individual sprint, Beckham lost to Malaysia’s Muhammad Shah Firdaus in the quarter-final of the same event. He finished eighth overall, and 11th in the men’s keirin.
Ronaldo and Beckham, both from Manipur, were also part of the men’s team that lost to Japan in the sprint first round.
“My father was a national footballer and a huge fan of Beckham,” Elkatohchoongo explained.
“I am also a big fan because he was such a good player.”
One might think that with a name like that, Elkatohchoongo would have become a footballer.
“I played football when I was 14 years old,” he said.
“I switched to cycling in 2017 and started my professional cycling career in Delhi five years ago.”
But not all the attention he gets because of his name has been positive.
When he flew to England for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games last year, Elkatohchoongo was stopped by immigration officials who conducted a thorough check on his passport before letting him through.
“When I got to the airport, the officer said, ‘Is that really your name, David Beckham? You are lying, you are not David Beckham.’ He then looked at my ID before he was convinced that my real name is really David Beckham.”
Laitonjam Singh’s father was also a football fan but his idol was not Cristiano Ronaldo. He was an ardent fan of the Brazilian wizard Ronaldinho.
He had named his son Ronaldo – not that far off since Ronaldinho translates to “little Ronaldo” – as he got news of the baby’s birth immediately after Ronaldinho scored the winning goal against England in the 2002 World Cup quarter-final.
“I must have been born just as the ball got into the net,” Laitonjam Singh told The Hindu newspaper.
“My dad, who was in Kashmir for work, won his bet against his friends that day. He thought I brought him luck.
“He was a great inspiration to me. He put in a lot of work so that I could become an international medallist. He died in 2017. Each time I compete, I want to make him proud of me.”
AFP, Indo-Asian News Service
