Football historian Roy says everyone is looking at India. Here you have more than 1 billion people, if you can make popular football, you will be rich. The top European clubs obviously understand that. Together with M.U, Liverpool and Barcelona have all opened football academies in India, but Dhar describes India as an unrecognized football territory.
But efforts to universalize the sport must overcome the prejudice of football and the greater respect in society for Indian nominations, which are becoming a major barrier to the development of sport in general, football in particular. Shaji Prabhakaran, director of FIFA’s South Asia football development agency, said that schools in India should take sport to an equal level with math and promote its health benefits.
Technical director Baan says children aged 6 to 12 need to be provided with a weekly sports program run by quality coaches at all schools. Let the children learn and play all sports, then find their talents. In addition, attractive salaries and the opportunity to become a coach or a sports doctor are other incentives for parents to allow their children to pursue football.
Roy said I-League players make more money than cricket players. The prize money is low, at only five million rupees ($ 93,000), but clubs will pay a lot because they are being heavily funded. Last year, India applied for the right to host the U17 World Cup and if selected, they will go straight. It was an opportunity for them to attend a world-class tournament for the first time. That would be a big push for Indian football.
After all, football geniuses were not born naturally. Lionel Messi of the world only appears when we create the right environment. Prabhakaran concluded that if Messi were born here, he might not have been as successful as he is now.