Revival of Indian Soccer

Revival of Indian Soccer

The other day I had a chat with a Portuguese coach. I had posted a write up about football in a soccer site and he appears to have impressed with my article and gave lot of useful comments and feedback. Subsequently he became my friend in Face Book. We discussed lot of things about Football in general and Indian football in particular.  He played for the second division in Portugal and now he is a soccer coach. He became a coach due to his passion for football and not to make lucrative returns. He took lot of interest in Indian football and both of us agree that there is lot of talent in India especially at the junior level. He has very innovative plan for development of Indian football and sent his presentation to all major clubs in India but he did not get even a single reply. He is of the opinion that foreign players who receive huge money should give more to the Indian Football. He is even prepared to give few weeks of free training to our budding footballers.

Portugal is a small country of about 10 million people but is a force to reckon with in world football. Portugal has produced some of the all time great footballers like Eusabio, Luis Figo, Christiano Ronaldo,  Rui Costa, Deco  etc to name a few. But unlike countries like Brazil, Germany, Italy, Holland etc they could not produce a bunch of great footballers to make it a crack combination. Consequently, inspite of producing some of the greatest ball players on the earth, they could not win any major trophy. Their best performance was reaching the Semi Finals of the 1966 and 1986 world cup championship.

There is abundance of football talent in the country especially at the junior level. Last year in the Subrato Cup Soccer Tournament for school boys, one team from Malappuram, Kerala reached the final. In the final they clashed with a Brazilian school team and they matched them for move for move, shot for shot, attack with counter attack, spectacular save with acrobatic save etc.  They lost to their formidable rival with the narrowest margin. But for the brilliant display of the Brazilian goalkeeper under the bar, Kerala team could have created history. Kerala team goal keeper also made a spectacular display under the bar thwarting many goal bearing moves of the rampaging Brazilian boys. Do we need any further proof for the reservoir of talent available especially at the junior level? These boys from Kerala reached at such high dizzy heights with bare minimum facilities and not even nutritious food. Imagine if India Senior team plays with Brazil, there will be a tornado of goals and according to my presumption Brazil will score 30+ goals and Neymar will be making multiple hat tricks. This clearly shows that all the talent at the junior level is going into the drain. Not only that we are reluctant to unearth, nurture and develop talents but also we often suppress and strangulate it.

 I am dreaming of a day when I will be part of a crack combination (Under 18) with myself as the mentor, motivator and interpreter and they will be roaring to conquer the world. Tata football Academy has produced many great footballers and once these teenage boys from TFA defeated one of the erstwhile top teams of the country Mohun Bagan Calcutta in a Durand Cup football match.

I appeal to my friends to pray for making my dream a reality, not for my personal benefit but to salvage and save Indian Soccer, to take the country to the pinnacles of glory in the most popular game of the universe and thereby upholding the prestige and status of second largest populated country in the world of nations.