Sudeep Pakrashi:
In the context of the senior national football team’s disappointing performance in the Asian Cup qualifiers, national Under-23 coach Naushad Moosa believes the rebuilding of a competitive senior national team should begin with identifying potential Indian footballers.
“One of the key problems in Indian youth football is that potential footballers are not getting quality match-time after joining ISL teams. For example, Suhail Bhat, wearing MBSG shirts in the ISL last season obtained only 140 minutes of match-time which is far from a requirement. They are the footballers of the next generation who will represent India and if they do not get enough match-time, you cannot expect them to compete in the international tournaments against stronger teams,” said Moosa.
Simultaneously, the assistant coach of NorthEast United FC pointed out an important opinion saying, “The country’s premier clubs should also take initiative for the revival of the national team. I cannot say about other ISL teams, but NorthEast United FC always tries to promote young Indian footballers. For example, Macarton Nickson was our reserve-team footballer, but going through his potential in the training he was brought into the senior team for training within six months and he participated in 20 matches in the ISL last season. Then I can talk about Samte. He was also promoted to the senior team after we noticed his performance in the training.”
Moosa also had advice for the country’s potential footballers not to jump to the ISL teams even after being offered by the ISL teams. “The young Indian players should be smart. They should not think only about money. Rather they should think about how many matches they will get to lay in the new team.”
While commenting on the building of the national team, Moosa pointed out an important issue that the chief national coach should watch I-League matches also before calling up the problems in the senior national camp as most of the Indian footballers take part.
“That is why I will be watching the Durand Cup and then the I-League after returning from Tajikistan after playing two preparatory matches. Before the next phase of preparation it will help me to call up probables,” opined Moosa.
Moosa will be happy if any guideline is created and followed in future where at least three promising Indian youth footballers have to be fielded in a match.
