Sunil Chhetri feels India has made progress in the past decade but still remains far behind other Asian powers in grassroot development and talent scouting.
The India captain said said that there is a lot of work left to narrow the gap with the Asian powers and enter the top-10 in the continent.
“Not only the grassroots but also the overall development of Indian football has been good. The hard part is reaching the top 10 in Asia is still far,” Chhetri was quoted as saying by PTI.
“No matter how fast we improve, the improvement seems small as compared to other Asian powers. Where we want to reach is still far but we are heading in the right direction.”
He added, “We are not good enough in identifying talent, infrastructure, making sure that young players get nourished food etc. We are not there yet. We are far better than we were in the last 10 years but the road is still very far. it is not the time of congratulating ourselves and being satisfied. We have to keep working hard.”
When asked about upcoming talent, he said, “It is better now but it is not great. Identification of talent is the first criteria of scouting and you have to identify talent at the right time.
“When a kid is 11 and when he is 14, there is a lot of a difference. Catching him when he is at 11 and putting him in a programme is going to be different from when he is 14. That is where we lacked. We have 1.3 billion people and it is impossible not to have talent. We have to improve as a country [in this aspect].”
Youth development is headed in the right direction, Chhetri said. The 34-year-old gave the examples of youngsters Amarjit Singh and Narinder Gahlot breaking into the senior national team.
“Young players like Amarjit Singh and Narendra Gahlot coming in the senior team, this gives us hope,” he said.
“It is not everyday that two young kids from U-17 break into the senior team. It is a promising thing and I just think things like these should happen for Indian football to progress further.”
Chhetri said he is impressed with the playing style of new head coach Igor Stimac, a member of the 1998 World Cup third-place finishing Croatian side.
“It is a different style of play and you have seen in the last tournament [Intercontinental Cup].
“The way we build up is different, he wants to build up from behind with lots of passes. I like this kind of game because my club plays like this and the Spanish players play like this.”
He added, “His [Stimac’s] philosophy and what he wants is quite clear. He is knowledgeable and the boys love him and we all have to rally behind him. Sahal [Abdul Samad], Udanta [Singh] and Anirudh [Thapa] are flourishing under him.”
Talking about the Intercontinental Cup, where India lost two and drew one, he said: “We did not do well because a lot of players were injured and also we are doing a lot of things.”
Chhetri described India’s group in the upcoming 2022 World Cup qualifiers as “interesting”.
“It is an interesting group, I am looking forward to it. I just hope we get some training matches before the tournament starts. We are getting two tough matches first, Oman at home and Qatar away. All the boys will have to come injury free and we will give a good fight.”