EXCLUSIVE
Boria Majumdar, Rohan Chowdhury, Trisha Ghosal
With so much speculation surrounding the Indian football squad for the upcoming Asian Games, it poses a great challenge for both the coach and the players, especially in terms of preparation for a showpiece tournament that India have not been part of since 2014. With less than 24 hours to go before they take off for Hangzhou, and after multiple changes and iterations, the team is finalised. In an exclusive interview with RevSportz, Igor Stimac, the head coach, opened up on the preparations for the much-anticipated Asian Games and what the nation can expect from the team. This is how the conversation went.
Boria: Coach, have you faced a greater challenge than this? Clearly, the situation is not ideal. You’ve mentioned that you’ll stand up for the flag, but is it remotely possible?
Stimac: Well, as I’ve repeated many times, we have to do big. We have to give our best and that’s all we can do. The rest is not in our hands. We have to go there and do our best, and that is what everyone is expecting of us.
Boria: With China, Myanmar, and Bangladesh, we do have a chance of going through. Do you believe that we can do it?
Stimac: We all know it’s very difficult with no proper training sessions. We’ll just reach there one night prior to our first game. Then, in the next 48 hours, we have our second game, and then the Bangladesh match. So, it’s three games in five days, for a team with not one training session together. But there is hope, and we have to make it happen. We have a team, but we’re short in many positions, mainly the full-backs. We have many wingers in the team. I’ve to figure out what sort of fitness level they’re at. Obviously, we cannot expect a beautiful display of football, but we’ll give the fight that is needed in these circumstances.
Boria: Over the last many days, there was so much speculation in the media that you wouldn’t travel to China. But you’ve always said it was not about you, but about India. Could you please clarify on this?
Stimac: Not only these last few days, but it was going on for the last few months, and all the parties were finding it difficult to find a solution. But ultimately, we have a team. I cannot let down India, so I decided to go there and decide on how to approach the things which are far more important.
Boria: Well, it was not smooth for you either, with a 16-month-old astrologer story again popping up, Apuia not being selected in the squad, passport issues for the players, or an injury issue not being treated properly. How difficult was it mentally to tackle all these with so much happening with the Asian Games squad?
Stimac: Well, obviously, it’s disturbing, however much strong and resistant you are against all these, which I really am because of the huge experience behind me. I know how things work in sports and politics, where people make up stories to shift the focus, but I am not worried about these things. They don’t even deserve my comments. Small people do bad things. They have nothing to do with their lives, so they are doing these bad things.
Boria: Have you spoken to the captain? There was talk that you and Sunil were united in this development, that if you go, then he goes and vice versa. Could you please elaborate on this?
Stimac: There were many discussions in the last seven days with him, and both of us were trying and pushing everyone to make them understand the situation we were in. I appreciate my captain, he’s so passionate and committed about leading the team and always representing India, which is something everyone should look into and learn how committed you need to be to represent the national team. It’s about pride, passion, and patriotism, and Sunil brings these to us. But my biggest question is: how ready is he? Because we all know he missed the full pre-season, and I don’t want him to risk him, for we have more important matches coming ahead of us, the World Cup qualifiers and the Asian Cup.
BIG EXCLUSIVE 🚨
“Small people do bad things” – Igor Stimac not worried by recent controversies and exposes and says “the team will fight for everything in China and make people proud.”@IndianFootball @19thAGofficial @BoriaMajumdar @stimac_igor#AsianGames2023 #IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/f6TAj4TNVG— RevSportz (@RevSportz) September 16, 2023
Boria: We spoke to Sandesh Jhingan, and he said: “Sky is the limit under coach Stimac.” How important is Sandesh Jhingan’s addition to the squad?
Stimac: What to say about my lion? You know we have only a few senior players, and the rest of them are only youngsters, but now we have a team which is promising and is giving us hope of achieving great things. There is opportunity and challenge for some new faces, with whom I never had the opportunity to work with before. This might be the turning point for these boys, so we need to use this momentum which is giving opportunity to these players.
Boria: Miracles do happen in sport, and we know that the times are tough. If you don’t prepare well for an examination, you don’t expect a result in that examination, but we will back the team unconditionally and hope that miracles will happen. Miracles have happened in sports. But this will perhaps be the most challenging assignment in your illustrious career.
Stimac: Thank you! I’m ready for this challenge.