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Former India international striker Abhishek Yadav has been appointed as Director of Scouting, India National Teams. Yadav who had scored India's Golden Goal winner in the 2002 LG Cup final against Vietnam will help to identify more Players for the India U-15 squad for the 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup in two years, the U-17 and the U-19 National Teams. Yadav will have regional scouts reporting to him.
The ambitious Scouting Network Plan designed by National Coach Stephen Constantine is the first of its kind in Indian Football history where regional scouts would be contributing to the cause to identify more talent for the growth of the sport in the Country.
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National Coach Stephen Constantine mentioned the process will "increase the number of Players available to play for the National Teams".
"Scouting is not a one man band. We need the help of everybody connected with Indian Football. I fully appreciate and thank AIFF President Mr. Praful Patel and AIFF General Secretary Mr. Kushal Das for giving me the licence to set this up and implement it," Constantine told AIFF Media.
"At the same time I would like to thank Abhishek (Yadav) for his unpaid role in helping Indian Football. Abhishek is a very bright and intelligent young man and understands the game. He is also a very good communicator and has a great love of the game. It was a no brainer for me in suggesting his appointment and I think he has a great deal to offer to the Indian Football in years to come," the National Coach added.
Constantine also emphasized on the attributes a scout needs to possess to be successful. "In order to scout Players you need to know exactly what we are looking for. There are specific attributes for any Player in any position. So the people who are doing the scouting have to know several things; e.g., what type of Player do we need in India; what is the philosophy of the National Team Coach; what kind of character dos this player have to offer," he stated.
"Then once you have your criteria you have to go and look for it. We have not done this before in India. This is unique."
"The regional scouts should have a clear idea and understanding of what the National Coach needs. Therefore, many of the scouts will have either played for me or worked for me in the past," Constantine maintained.
"Off-course there would be many regional scouts appointed who have not played under me but they would be interviewed and appointed based on their previous work and all round attitude to the game."
Constantine hopes the new set-up would also help India's preparation for the 2017 U-17 FIFA World Cup. "My hope in establishing this network is that we can help our new U-17 coach Nicolai Adam by going to the regions and pre-selecting a group of Players from a particular State in order to save time."
"Nicolai does not have time to go and watch 300-400 Players that are not up to the standard. Thus the job of the regional scouts is to select from the selected Players in collaboration with the State Associations."
