Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Georgetown University’s Newspaper of Record since 1920

The Hoya

Student Launches Book, Entrepreneurship Venture

YASMINE SALAM/THE HOYA
YASMINE SALAM/THE HOYA

When Shiv Jhangiani (MSB ’19) registered for a McDonough School of Business class last year billed as a course on entrepreneurship and venture capitalism, he did not expect he would end up a published author.

Jhangiani is one of 15 students whose books were published by New Degree Press after taking an McDonough School of Business course last semester, released his book, “1.3 Billion: A Football Revolution in the Making” to contribute to the development of football in India and launch his career in the sports industry in the Healey Family Student Center on Tuesday.

The 15 students had their books published after taking “Launching the Venture,” a course in the MSB that taught students how to launch their own businesses and write books on subjects about which they were most passionate.

Jhangiani presented his book at the annual Sant Jordi celebration, a Catalan celebration similar to Valentine’s Day, organized by the Spanish Department last Monday.

Since the release of his book, Jhangiani has launched his own sport advisory firm, Billion Dollar Food, a sports advisory company that aims to connect an interested party, whether a European football team, a worldwide brand or an individual investor, to Indian football.

Jhangiani said he has been passionate about football since he was young, when he aspired to being a professional football player. Serious knee injuries prevented his football career from materializing while young, but his passion for football and his homeland remains.

The book focuses on potential ways to develop football in India.

“The main parts to the book are where football is currently in India, where it needs to go, why the world needs Indian football and why India needs football,” Jhangiani said. “It looks at the issue from the outside: how European clubs, if they were to invest in Indian football, how they can do that, the different ways a big club can do it, a smaller club can do it and how that can impact Indian football.”

Jhangiani said his personal experience with football in India urged him to recognize the lack of development in the sport.

“I moved to India when I was 11, which is an age where you need to be playing football day in, day out if you want to be making it professionally. I found it really tough to find a place to play because there wasn’t a structure where the teams had youth clubs where people can come in to train everyday,” Jhangiani said.

Luck and the right connections enabled him to play at the right level, according to Jhangiani.

“I didn’t really get anything through the football system in India. I just got very lucky in the people that I met and was really in the right place in the right time and that is how I got my opportunity to move to France,” Jhangiani said. “I was given a trial by a football team in France through an agent who is Indian.”

Jhangiani said he wants to develop a more formal structure for Indian football players to access resources to play professionally.

“There isn’t a whole infrastructure. There isn’t a whole setup for it and that is what needs to be developed right now,” Jhangiani said.

Jhangiani said the lack of academic material on Indian football was a source of difficulty.

“There are literally no books on football in India so I just did not know where to start,” Jhangiani said. “There is not a lot of material about Indian football apart from news articles which have come up very, very recently.”

Jhangiani has partnered with multiple departments on campus to promote the recent launch of his book, including the French and Spanish language departments and entrepreneurship groups at Georgetown.

Catalan lecturer Laura Vilardell, who managed the Q&A section of his book presentation, said the intersection between Indian football and international football interested her.

“We need more books like Shiv’s book because I think it gives you an image not only of Indian football, but also how it compares to all other leagues in the world,” Vilardell said. “It will probably be the first of many books about Indian football because it is a topic that a lot of people are interested in.”

Vilardell said Jhangiani’s research about the Spanish soccer team F.C. Barcelona made his book presentation pertinent to the Spanish department.

“I thought we should do something with the department because he is interested in La Masia and F.C. Barcelona. He had done some interviews with people who are part of the directive leadership of Barca. This is a very interesting link because of the heavy football culture Spain has,” Vilardell said.

Jhangiani has also sought links with India Initiative, a student and faculty-organized effort at Georgetown to advance teaching and research about India and world affairs.

India Initiative student fellow Yash Johri (SFS ’17) said Jhangiani’s book launch came at an opportune time for Indian sports.

“[The book] comes at an opportune time as India prepares to host the [FIFA] U-17 Football World Cup. There is a tremendous push by the government and businesses to gain the footballing world’s attention; one hopes that Jhangiani’s work also gets attention and that he can jump onto the bandwagon of world football’s next revolution,” Johri said.

The U-17 Football World Cup is a competition for football players under 17 years of age.

So far, Jhangiani has sold over 100 e-books on pre-release through Amazon and is hoping to sell as many paperbacks as possible. He intends to pursue partnerships with consulting firms Deloitte and Credit Suisse to buy mass numbers of books.

Jhangiani said he wants to use his book to help him break into the sports management industry, setting himself apart from most of his MSB peers.

“I wanted to use the book to get my foot into the sports industry because it’s not an industry like banking or consulting where there is a path drawn out for you and you just follow it,” he said. “I want to prove to the world of sports why I deserve to have my place in that world. But I want to sell as many copies as possible to raise awareness about Indian football.”

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