India is certainly capable of competing at higher levels in soccer. Our boys need more and more international exposure and systematic training from the grass root level.
Those at the helm in India need to visit academies in Porto, Madrid, Barcelona, Ajax Amsterdam, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Manchester, Eindhoven and so on and set up state of the art centres of excellence in various regions of our country.
Boys staying and studying at the academies need to be provided with a special study curriculum that will prepare them to serve the game in different roles after their playing years are over. The footballers should not be burdened to compete in academics with the regular students. They will not be able to do justice to both at the same time.
Goa of the good old days did not not have academies but our school hostels in the bygone decades acted almost as semi-academies where boys grew up in a culture dedicated to discipline, studies and sports. Hostels attached to schools like Monte de Guirim, Britto's, Duler, Pilar, Don Bosco, Loyola, Vasco and Lar were producing top ranked athletes and players who in later years became household names in the Goa State and in our country.
Get real dude- day-dreams is great, but sometime you have to get back to reality - no matter if India spent her entite GDP on footbal coaches she will still NEVER make it to the World Cup - never! And the reason is very simple - Indians just don't have what it takes to be champions at anyhting, least of Football, which requires apart from skill, inordinate amounts of physical strength and stamina. As the saying goes, Indians have 'belly', but lack stamina - their inadequate diet may have something to do with it. Ever wonder why the mojority of Indians are so short phsically and emaciated looking? Think about it - bad diet!
If Indian soccer is to make any progress, the attitude change has to start from childhood. The game is not about each selfish player showing of their skill, but a complete team game.
This is an inherent Indian weakness. The population is very self-centered and as soon as they are slightly competent at any petty little thing, including soccer, their ego destroys the team spirit or in a greater sense the national spirit.
If Trinidad and Tobago can reach the final stages then at least we should be a respectable, if not dominant power.
This will have to be a fifteen to twenty year plan and short sighted approaches are bound to fail
