Football News: The Indian football team needs to learn from World Cup disappointment

The Indian side finished third in the group for World Cup qualification with just one victory from six games. They quit at the third spot, nine points behind second-placed Oman. The failure to qualify for the world's biggest football tournaments disappointed the sports fans in India.

It was the best performance of India in the World Cup qualification since the 2022 World Cup qualifiers. However, India is ranked at a disappointing World No. 104 despite a large population and a growing premier league.

Signs of improvement

India signed the former captain of the Croatian national squad, Igor Stimac, to demonstrate their commitment to the growth of Indian football in 2019. The popularity of football in India was displayed at the World Cup qualifier against Bangladesh in 2019 at the Salt Lake Football Stadium in Kolkata, attended by an audience of more than 54 thousand.

Despite not qualifying for the Qatar World Cup, India won all three qualification matches against Afghanistan, Cambodia and Hong Kong to secure a spot at the AFC Asia Cup.

Igor Stimac has emphasised the importance of developing domestic tournaments to arrange for sufficient preparation time in addition to at least four friendly matches every year. He believes India has a focus to improve further if they focus on achieving positive results.

A struggle to compete with cricket

Cricket is the most popular sport in India, with several well-known Indian cricket players famous worldwide, such as Sunil Gavaskar, Virat Kohli and Sachin Tendulkar. Therefore, football faces a tough challenge to develop an interest to pursue football instead of cricket among aspiring sports persons in India.

India has made some progress in attracting young talent to football since launching Indian Super League in 2013. ISL clubs have signed well-known foreign footballers such as Tim Cahill, Alessandro Del Piero and ex-Manchester United striker Dimitar Berbatov. The move has allowed Indian players to play alongside them to help raise the capability of Indian football.

Over-reliance on star striker

Sunil Chhetri is the top goal scorer and one of the most capable footballers in the Indian squad. The 37-year-old has scored 84 games in his 129 appearances for India. He scored four of eight goals scored by India in their bid to qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Games. However, the star striker is growing old and will have to retire soon, leaving a considerable gap in the attacking capabilities of the Indian squad.

Therefore, India must find a replacement for their star stickers. Some contenders to replace Sunil Chhetri are Ashique Kuruniyan, Liston Colaco and Manvir Singh. India has long struggled with a lack of goals in their international matches. The problem will only be exacerbated in the absence of Sunil Chhetri.