Kolkata: Indian Captain Sunil Chettri has been instrumental in India’s success in the international level, ever since Stephen Constantine has taken the charge of it. Though, Stephen has denied the dependence on Sunil in a press conference in Kolkata today. He said, “I don’t think we are dependant on Sunil Chhetri. He is always at the right place at the right time. There is fierce competition for all places. Sunil Chhetri is a player who has been consistent, he is professional, he looks after himself and he is a great player and great leader. We are happy with him but there are plenty of other players who are coming up and we would continue to search for players that will help us.”
India’s National Team Head Coach Stephen Constantine met the press after the two-day workshop today. Along with Stephen, The honourable Sports Minister of the Govt of West Bengal Mr Aroop Biswas, The AIFF Vice-President Mr Subrata Dutta, Laxmi Ratan Shukla, Dr Shanti Ranjan Dasgupta were also present. In the FIFA world ranking which will be unveiled for this month on Thursday, India will possibly jump 31 places to be at 101st. But Stephen raised an interesting fact by saying, “Football team needs a spine, after giving debuts to 34 odd players did you find the spine that could take India to the 2019 Asian Cup. I would be a little happier if Bolivia didn’t beat Argentina because then we would have been 97. Having said that, am I happy? Yes. Can we do better? Absolutely.”
Stephen believes the FIFA U17 World Cup might be a great occasion to lift the standards of the football in the country. He said, “We have an U-17 World Cup that’s the first time in our history is going to take place. It’s a huge honour for us and we should make the most of that. Because once the FIFA World Cup closes, we are on our own. And we need to make that we maintain the facilities and that the pitch is ok. So two-three years later we don’t comeback looking for fields.” He added, “It’s very important that we take advantage of what FIFA is providing in terms of structure but we have to maintain them ourselves once they are gone.”
Constantine also heaped praise for the ISL as he said, “The ISL has made us universal. It has shown that Indians not only play football but we are not bad either. We are good players. I think however things pan out in the future we know that we are centre stage.”
Question was raised regarding the comparison of Bhaichung and Sunil, and Constantine analyzed, “They both are great players in their own right. Bhaichung maybe was a little bit more aggressive. Maybe that was because he spent three years in England. But Sunil Chhetri is different, he can play a bit wider. He can come off the flanks. He can give us different looks if you like. I think there is quite a big difference.”
Sports Minister Aroop Biswas was literally happy with the workshop and said, “If Constantine wants to work on football in our state, we have doors open for him. We will scout players from different parts of Bengal now and Abhishek Yadav has promised me to do the final scouting.” IFA Secretary, Utpal Ganguly said, “We have a plan to do a seminar like that for the coaches who are there in Kolkata football’s Premier Division.” AIFF Vice-President Subrata Dutta has mentioned, “The scouting seminars will be there in twenty nine other places. This was a very important seminar. The team will now scout talents from different corners of the rural Bengal.”