The last nail in the coffin of India's hopes for a World Cup place

If the lanes and by-lanes of the various cities of India are visited these days, one is bound to hear the city lads discussing Olympics and certainly the football season transfer news that are doing the rounds. Another thing that one won’t miss is the discussion regarding the number of Indian players attending trials at various foreign clubs. Diverse reactions, speculations are being fuelled with the rise of this new movement. Some pundits are hailing this phenomenon to be the greatest heights achieved by Indian football; some are just basking in the glory, fearing to be overtly critical. Amidst all this hunky dory appearance of the magnificence of Indian football, let’s have a sneak peek into the actual happenings that most people are oblivious of.

We all know Sunil Chhetri, whose dynamic role can’t be overlooked in the success of the Indian football team at Nehru Cup in 2007, had a brief stint with the Major League Soccer outfit Kansas City Wizards. However after appearing for the side in a few games the Wizards’ team boss was not quite ‘impressed’ with his performance and thus Chhetri’s American Dream was over for the time being. Recently, he appeared for trials at another top flight club of Portugal, viz. Sporting Lisbon. Apparently, his performance was appreciated there but it was not good enough to earn him a place in the first team. He was selected for the reserve team of the Portuguese club or the ‘B’ team in other words. The reserve team of any club comprises of youth talents who are still learning and garnering experience at their level. Sunil Chhetri has played for almost all the top rung clubs of India and has a bagful of experience appearing for the national team and scoring goals as well in international competitions. It is a sad sight to see such a player at the ripe age of 28 years deciding to choose the reserve team of a Portuguese club rather than committing his career to the Indian football team. Some might argue that Rome was not built in a day and so would be the case with Indian football and thus, this is the beginning of the exposure that was hitherto unheard of. However, at this age if a player of the likes of Sunil Chhetri plays for the reserve team of a foreign club then what can the country expect from the rising stars of the Indian football scenario. This move of Chhetri has almost cost him his place at the Indian football team which will participate in the Nehru cup next month. He will be appearing for the reserve team of Sporting Lisbon and therefore will be unable to join the preparatory camp of his national side starting from 1^st August. Thus India loses a star striker who failed to honor his national commitments and instead opted to appear for the reserve team of the Portuguese club. He could have easily played for any of the top clubs in India who would have been more than glad to feature a player of his caliber in their starting XI. However it is sad to see the neglect that Indian football is being inflicted with by the players of the national team.

Another instance that we have at hand is the tale of goalkeepers Subrata Paul and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. Paul is India’s number one choice for the custodian spot and he is off to Germany, trialing at a 4^th division club. This sounds ridiculous to the fans of Indian football who hope to see the national team rubbing shoulders with the best teams at some edition of the FIFA World Cup. A 4^th division club and Subrata Paul, being the nation’s top goalkeeper is off to Germany leaving his side’s preparatory camp for the upcoming Nehru Cup. This attitude of the nation’s top level footballers is just instilling the feelings of lack of dedication in the young minds of India who someday hope to don the national Blue jersey.

All this does not mean that Indian football is progressing with respect to the standards of the game, but it is merely the commercial projects that are being fuelled as a result of these ‘exposures’. Not being utterly critical but realism should be definitely imbibed in the minds of the Indian footballers. It has to be incorporated in their psyche that the only aim should be the prosperity of Indian football. It is not that financially India lags behind. It can be seen that the amount of money that the management is spending in retaining foreign players namely, Tolgay, Odafa Okolie are unseen in the Indian football scenario. Hence the owners of the various clubs have the financial power to offer lucrative contracts to the Indian players. However, the players have to realise that representing lower level teams in the foreign scenario is not going to lead them to be the greats in Europe or elsewhere. It is undisputed that those so called reserve teams or 4^th division teams are way ahead in infrastructural and other amenities as compared to India. Yet it is not the place where players at the middle of their career go and destroy their ends, thus ruining the chances of the Indian football team to shine and yield better results in international tournaments.