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‘India’s U-17 World Cup team will be tough to beat’
Ahead of the under-17 World Cup football to be staged in India next year, the hosts will feature in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 tournament starting
Ahead of the under-17 World Cup football to be staged in India next year, the hosts will feature in the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-16 tournament starting in Goa on Thursday. India, who face United Arab Emirates in the opener, are in a tough pool also including Iran and Saudi Arabia. In a free-flowing interview the head coach of India’s U-17 World Cup team Nicolai Adam told HT how it is getting harder for new talent to break into his team and his expectations from the two upcoming tournaments. Excerpts:
Last year, you pledged to prepare an India team that will be hard to beat. Are they there yet?
I think they are there. We will be difficult to beat. The training camp in Norway and Germany went very well and there were a couple of good results. The only problem we face now, and I’m not making an excuse, is that we have injuries. Reamsochung Aimol, a potential starter, has fractured his leg. Ninthoi has an inflamed appendix and might undergo surgery. Plus we are missing four players from the World Cup U-17 squad, who cannot play in the AFC championship because of the second cut off (age). So, we are without six players who went to Norway and Germany, but even then it will be difficult to beat us.
You were looking for left-footed players to get the balance...
I am not only looking for left-footed players, we are always looking out for players. This overseas scouting (a trial was held in Dubai in June) will be of great help too. The door is always open, but it is getting more and more difficult to break into this team. We had a couple of boys from the scouting project (from Dubai) to train with us in Germany and they were not good enough technically and tactically.
There is also a B team...
To be honest not too many have progressed from B team to the A team. We took over a year ago in April 2015 and we had a good look at the academy (in Goa). Then we went out on our own scouting trip and found a few players. The problem with the B team is that they don’t have a budget. They had one five-day exposure trip to Russia and one match. That is not enough. As long as there is no budget and they only stay in the academy, do their training and play local teams, you cannot expect much development. From the B team, there is only one player who I like, and I’ll nominate him for the BRICS Cup (after the AFC event); after that basically that might be it for the B Team. The plan is to close the academy and release those players to clubs.
What are your expectations from the team?
In the best case scenario we will have 11 international matches, from September 15 to October 15. It is almost too much, but on the other side, it is great exposure. In the BRICS Cup, I can use all my players as there is no cap on substitutions. The team also wants to confirm the good results they delivered in Germany and Norway. They may feel pressure as this will be real competition against other national teams, the best in Asia. So, we are looking forward to that. Let’s hope for the best.
