Ryan Williams arrived in India as an Australian footballer looking for a new challenge. Three years later, the Bengaluru FC winger has become one of the Indian national team’s most vocal advocates, embracing both the club and the country as home.The 32-year-old has experienced near misses with Bengaluru FC, adapting to Indian football, and the responsibility of mentoring younger players while representing India. Despite a six-year trophy drought at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, he believes the club is closer to success than results suggest.In this conversation with TimesofIndia.com, Williams, who was roped in by JSW Sports recently, speaks about Bengaluru FC’s title ambitions, manager Pep Muñoz’s philosophy, the OCI debate, national team pride, and why life in Bengaluru has been an enjoyable chapter of his career.Excerpts:Q. Can you start by talking about your time so far in India, move to Bengaluru FC, playing for the national team?Ryan: Yeah, probably the last three years of my career has been the most, first and foremost, transformative, I would say, definitely. But also the one I’ve enjoyed the most with kind of what I’m doing with BFC, although we haven’t won anything.My everyday life here, I love it. I love living in Bangalore, the football club itself, the way the club is run.Then obviously moving on to the national team has been such an amazing experience for me. It’s one that has been so positive and hopefully I can continue to keep it in a positive way and just try and help the younger boys, try and, if possible, get more players like me to do what I’ve done, for me to show them it is possible. I’ve said in many interviews that if there is anything I can do, please reach out. And I’ve had boys reach out, which is good because obviously the reason I’m here is to help Indian football at the end of the day.
Ryan Williams joined ISL club Bengaluru FC in 2023. (Instagram)
Q. Let me start off by focusing on Bengaluru FC. Six-year title drought. Does the pressure tell on you that the team hasn’t won in so long?Ryan: Not at all. I don’t think so at all. I think it’s more the fans who have been here to enjoy the super successful times. We have been slowly building and almost got there. The season before I came, they got to three finals. And then the season after, we had a managerial change. Then the season after that, we got to the ISL Cup final. And from our own doing, we couldn’t hold out.Obviously last season, with it being a truncated season, just when we kind of found our feet, the season finished. So this season will be really exciting. I don’t feel any pressure personally.The fans are amazing. They obviously stick with us through the good and the bad. They’re probably the best fans in India in terms of how they do stick behind us when things aren’t going so well. So for us, it’s more about trying to give them something back. That’s how I see it, because they’ve been so amazing with us, especially with me having come over here from Australia and everything that’s come in between.The hardest thing to do as a men’s professional footballer is to win trophies. And that’s something that, you know, the last three seasons we haven’t done since I’ve been here. So it’s definitely something that we’ve spoken about and something that we want to put right.Q. When you joined Bengaluru FC, it’s not just about joining a very professional team, but also about adapting to Indian football. How tricky has that experience been in navigating not just things on the field, but off the field?Ryan: I’m a pretty well-travelled guy. I moved to the UK by myself when I was 16, moved in with a foster family, had to figure all that out by myself and then back to Australia and then India. So it was difficult the kind of first six to eight weeks in terms of outside of football. But then after that, I kind of found my feet and understood how things worked.And there’s still things that I’m not quite 100 percent on, but, you know, I’ve got a good network of people supporting me, which definitely helped. And then in terms of football, I think any new club you go to, especially a different country as well. I mean, I look back on my first season and towards the end, I started to come through and started to be more confident and got used to the players I’m with, got used to the surroundings, the pitches, even the day to day.I would say one thing that helped me on the pitch was having Simon Grayson (Bengaluru FC manager from 2022 until 23) and his management staff because they were all English and they took the sessions and organised everything the way that I was used to for 12 years in England. So that was a massive help for me. But it did take me the first half of the season to really find my feet and then started to enjoy my football at the end.
Ryan Williams. (Instagram)
And then I just kind of kept going, kept believing in myself and got used to (it). Because the European players are obviously different to Indian players and there’s positives and negatives about both. So it’s trying to work out how do I communicate in a proper way. They all do speak English, that’s not the issue. In the UK, you can kind of shout and scream at people and they listen to the message and not how the message is given. Whereas here you have to be more cautious about how you give the message rather than what the message is sometimes. And that’s one thing I’ve been trying to help the young boys with. Just trying to be more positive around them and let them that I’m here to support you. We’re both on the same team. We’re trying to go for the same thing. So it’s in my best interest to help them perform at their maximum capability. In turn, if we win something because of him, everybody wins. So that was one thing that I had to kind of figure out in the first six months.Q. Ahead of the next season, manager Pep Munoz spoke about having a strong defensive structure and then allowing the wings to come into play. What do you make of the style and the approach that the manager is trying to instil within the club?Ryan: I really like it. I was lucky enough to work with Gerard (Zaragoza) and Sebas (Sebastian Vega) before who have a similar approach… the Spanish management style, which I was new to at first when Gerard came in. So it’s put me in good stead because we spent a year and a half or thereabouts together.
We want people that wear the jersey with pride and are willing to give everything to play for the country. I think that is what it means to play for your country.
Ryan Williams
And last season was good in a way that he [Muñoz] came in. He came in with his coaching staff and it was really good because everybody got to kind of figure out how to work with each other, what exactly he wants to do on the pitch. And that’s put us in good stead for this season because last season was, for lack of better words, almost like a draft copy. It was like a dummy run. So now we’ve been in pre-season early, we’re spending a lot more time on the pitch, figuring out exactly what he wants and how we can best do that on the pitch to obviously give us results, put people in positions that works best for everybody. So I’m really excited.I really love what he’s doing on the football pitch. And the good thing is that obviously that small part we had with him last season has been, like I said, a dummy run to push us forward into this season. So we don’t need as much time together on the grass to connect the dots. The dots are connected and now it’s just about fine tuning it and pushing it forward.
Ryan Williams gave up his Australian passport to play for India.(Instagram)
Q. There is consideration about bringing in a Sports Passport or allowing more OCIs. What do you make of that consideration?Ryan: I think for Indian football, for it to grow at a faster rate than what it is now, we need to see success in the national team. And if that means that the Sports Passport and the OCI can help us in the next one to two years to push us up higher up the rankings and get us qualified for Asian Cups and stuff like that, then there’s going to be more interest in Indian football. That’s great, but I think long term, I think it would work. I think if we can send the younger boys from here that way, rather than bringing them this way, if that makes sense.Q. Is that a chicken and egg sort of situation? Because if you don’t succeed, if the national team does not succeed, then the number of players who would want to give up their passports will also be lesser. Or does it work the other way around?Ryan: If they’re looking at just coming here when it [national team] does good, I think maybe they’re the wrong kind of people we’re looking for. I think we want players that want to come here, give everything for the country and help the national team. And within helping the national team, we actually help the whole ecosystem. So, you know, like for me, there was no guarantees of anything. I have kind of done it because that’s what I wanted to do. I’m proud to play for India. There has to be that pride.We want people that wear the jersey with pride and are willing to give everything to play for the country. I think that’s what it means to play for your country.
Ryan Williams has played two games for India so far. (Instagram)
Q. What have you liked about Bengaluru as city and the culture? And is there a connect between all the cities you’ve lived in the past?Ryan: There’s no city that I’ve lived in that’s like Bengaluru. You know, it is in itself its own kind of country, if you will. Like, first of all, I love the weather. The weather is perfect. If you came straight from the UK, you’re in heaven because you have these nice periods where it’s nice and cool, like it is now in the rain. And then in the summer, it’s nice and warm, but not too hot.You know, the kind of the restaurants here, which my wife and I try to go to as much as possible. There’s just so much to do. There’s so much to see. There’s, you know, so many different aspects to this city that make it beautiful and I really love it all.For me, it’s a very relaxed lifestyle. And that’s kind of how I like to live my life, in a very relaxed, laidback, not taking things too seriously way. And I feel like here’s the perfect place.