From the Riverside to Bangalore, two former Middlesbrough footballers are helping to boost football’s profile in one of the world’s most populous countries.
Josh Walker and John Johnson, former Boro academy graduates, have chosen to leave behind the English game to play in India’s professional I-League.
“India was never somewhere I thought to go on holiday, never mind to play football,” Josh, 25, told BBC One’s Inside Out (NE & Cumbria), which airs tonight at 7.30pm.
Tom Banks 
Josh Walker leads his team out in 2006
The former England youth captain has left his family, including two-year-old daughter Marnie, behind in the North-east to become the ‘marquee’ signing for Bangalore’s Bengaluru FC.
He said: “Things I was being offered to stay in the UK, I thought it is time to try something new.
“It is a difficult to know that I am not going to see her (Marnie) for a couple of months.
“I am going there to work and provide for her really, and it is a great opportunity I think.
“Obviously it is incredibly hard at times missing your daughter. But I have to work and this is my job. My career was going nowhere back home.
“This is an opportunity and I am going to grab it with both hands.”
Newcastle-born Josh made his Boro debut in an end-of-the-season encounter against Fulham in 2006, aged 17, and made eight appearances for the club.
Former Boro manager Gareth Southgate told the show Josh was “a really good professional from a very young age, with a great attitude to the game.”
He played for nine clubs in the next eight years, lastly playing for Gateshead before his move to India last year.
He continued: “I was always wanting to play week in week out in the Premier League and I would find myself knocking on the manager’s door at 17, 18 asking why I was not playing.
“I look back and to be honest, I cringe at myself.”
Ashley Westwood, the manager at Bengaluru, said if Josh “realised his potential” he would be a “real asset to the club”.
Football is the second largest sport in India - yet still a distant second to cricket.
But Josh says he has no regrets after his move, with interest in the sport growing all the time and his club securing the 2015 Indian Federation Cup in January.
“The fans are that fanatical it makes you more professional because you are like an idol to them,” he said.
“It is nice to have that interaction with the fans, and is something that in England does not really happen.”
Middlesbrough-born defender John Johnson made his one Boro appearance in a 5-0 home defeat to Chelsea in October 2008, the season that the club were relegated to the Championship.
He went on to play for Tranmere Rovers and Northampton Town, but thinks that an increasing number of English players would look abroad for contracts.
He said: “I think it is becoming more of a thing for players to look abroad now, because it is tough back home.
“When people take their step and move abroad and people can see it is exciting, it is different it is a new challenge.
“It is definitely a thing that will get more popular with English players I think.”
• BBC One Inside Out (NE &Cumbria) on Monday February 9 at 7.30pm follows former England Youth Captain and Middlesbrough academy graduate Josh Walker as he journeys to India to find football fame.
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