A Meitei household in Imphal cannot wait for the Fifa U-17 World Cup to begin. It does not want it to end, ever. The only son, Ninthoinganba Meitei, is part of the Indian squad and it's celebration time, but it's also confusion time, The Meiteis are worried. What happens when Ninthoi returns to his tin-roofed shack?

Ninthoi's father, Manglemb, passed away two months ago and mother, Mina, is now the only bread-winner. She sells fermented fish in the local market and that is not enough to make ends meet. Certainly not enough to make the trip from Imphal to the Capital to watch her son play, as Manglemb had promised his son when alive, or to provide him a proper diet when he returns home after World Cup duty.

Several other families of the footballers in India's first-ever football World Cup team has a similar story to tell ­ poverty and hardship seeking an escape through football. You could say it is the constant narrative in the journey of a bunch of boys who could go down in history as the only Indians to ever play a football World Cup.

Ninthoinganba is not the only one. Teammate Abhijit Sarkar's father pulls his rickshaw in Chinsurah, a town in Bengal by the Hooghly. Jitender Singh 's father is a watchman.

Sanjeev Stalin's mother sells clothes by a Bengaluru footpath and the defender believes that if he has come as far as the World Cup, a professional career in football may not be far away which could help provide his family with more than just a decent living.

"Football is the only thing that I know. Everyone knows that our family condition is not good but it can change with football. This is our life," says Stalin, an energetic left-back counted among the best in business.

For captain Amarjit Singh , whose parents sell fish in Imphal, football is the only way out of poverty, although such thoughts of a 'good future' have to be set aside during the World Cup.

"For us, right now, it's only the World Cup that matters. We don't know what will happen after that but I've not known anything besides football. Many players in the team come from humble backgrounds, so football can provide welcome help," said the Manipur midfielder.

Cousin Jeakson Singh , also in India's squad, too hasn't had it easy. His mother had no option but to sell vegetables in the market after Jeakson's father, who introduced both boys to the game, suffered a stroke.

The presence of eight players from Manipur in the Indian team has caught everyone's attention. Except probably for a few 'middleclass' lads like goalkeeper Dheeraj Singh and midfielder Suresh Singh , almost all others have had to face hardship and poverty. No wonder, their determination to succeed remains exceptional.

"They take their football very seriously. You must see the way they train. They are unbelievably committed. They know this is the only way out of poverty," a member of the Indian team's coaching staff who has seen most of these players for at least the past three years, tells TOI.

It's not just in Manipur where football and poverty co-exist. Jitendra Singh 's father is a watchman in Bengal, while Anwar Ali, India's first-choice defender from Punjab, used to graze cattle during his school days. He tends to his modest fields now.

Striker Aniket Jadhav's father drives an auto rickshaw in Kolhapur; midfielder Komal Thattal comes from a family of small-time tailors in Sikkim and Hendry Antonay had a tough childhood in Bengaluru's Austin Town.

Once the World Cup is over, most players will have club officials and agents knocking on their humble dwellings with lucrative contracts. Their under-19 counterparts have already signed on the dotted line for anything between Rs 50,000 and Rs 1.20 lakh a month. This lot is far better and should be able to command more. If they deliver on the promise they have shown thus far, sky is the limit.

