A “tough-to-entertain single kid”, Kean’s parents came up with a pretty straight-forward method to keep him occupied.

Our interview is just getting started at this point. It’s the end of the day, and Lewis is exhausted after a hard evening training session. At the family home in Thane, Pearl and Foster Lewis are glad that old habits die hard.

Behind the flap of his laptop, Lewis informs me that the club physio is working on a member of the squad getting his routine treatment, while he sips on his cup of Mate tea.

Long distances between the team hotel, training grounds and the stadiums where the I-League matches are currently happening are the least of the players’ worries. Covid tests every five days, movement only allowed in certain sections of the hotel, and seeing the same view from their rooms every single day takes a mental toll.

But the way Lewis sees it, the trade off is worth it if it means he gets to play football.

2021 marks Kean Lewis’ sixth year playing professional football in India, which began with Mohun Bagan in 2015. But to get there, he cut his teeth at the famed Tata Football Academy, trained with Leicester City’s U14 and U16 side as a teen, played for Mahindra United’s youth side, and moved to the USA where he played college football and was part of MLS side Houston Dynamos’ U23 team.

In footballing terms, he was still a kid who didn’t have any ‘contacts’ in India in 2015. But after scoring goals by the bucket for the Mariners in the Calcutta Football League, the then head coach Sanjoy Sen was confident that Lewis was good enough for the storied club. He had his first senior professional contract with a top-tier club in India.

However, the goals didn’t come by as easily as he would have liked. Lewis had to seek that feeling elsewhere, and in 2016, he was loaned to erstwhile Delhi Dynamos for season three of the Indian Super League. Thus began his career’s most prolific scoring run, playing in an attack that had Florent Malouda, Richard Gadze and Marcelinho.

Lewis scored four goals and registered two assists that season, helped the Dynamos to play-off qualification, and finished the season as the second highest Indian goalscorer. His manager, legendary Italian defender Gianluca Zambrotta, had helped unlock this talented Indian forward’s potential.

Fast forward a year. Something wasn’t quite right with Lewis during the 2017-18 ISL season, which he spent in the colors of FC Pune City. Seven appearances, no goals. He found himself in the playoffs once again though, where Bengaluru FC knocked his team out over two legs. It wouldn’t be ‘his team’ for much longer.

Go over to Lewis’ Instagram account, and his veganism doesn’t go amiss. It’s in his description, he posts about it, studying and observing what he puts into his body with academic rigour.

Some of India’s most remarkable athletes are vegan. Virat Kohli and Sunil Chhetri both swear by the positive impact making a dietary U-turn has had on their body and game.

A special mention for Chhetri - At the age of 36, when most athletes are slowing down, the Indian captain is regularly clocking up top sprint speeds in the 2020-21 ISL season. However, a case can be made that had Kean Lewis not joined Bengaluru FC ahead of the 2018-19 ISL season, it may have taken Chhetri slightly longer to get aboard the dairy-free train.

Lewis spent two seasons at BFC and was part of an Indian Super League title winning squad. He speaks in glowing terms about his time at the club and the culture that it operates within - a culture of mutual respect and professionalism, where he never felt alienated or undervalued, despite not playing very regularly.

But coming into the years of a footballer’s career that are supposedly peak years, regular playing time had become a pre-requisite for him by the end of his second season at the club.

For Lewis, the opportunity seemed like a perfect fit. Sudeva was looking for a senior figure who could add some quality and also help in guiding the younger players in their squad, while Lewis wanted to go somewhere he would be playing regularly.

A one year contract was locked in.

On the 14th of January against Indian Arrows, Lewis captained the team and scored his first goal for the club, which also happened to be the club’s first ever goal in the I-League. Whatever happens from this point, he is already a part of the club’s history.

It was the first time Lewis had captained a team in Indian professional football, but he refuses to get caught up in the hype surrounding the armband.

Still only 28, he is nowhere close to being done. Playing for India is a dream the man from Thane still harbors, but in order to get there, he is unwavering in his focus about what he needs to do bit by bit.

And what are those weaknesses?

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