“It’s time for our country to see the next No. 9,” Sunil Chhetri said towards the end of his farewell message. For 19 years he did the job for his national team. Now, as the 39-year-old says fare-thee-well, the question is who after him?
For close to two decades, Chhetri was the Indian football team’s tenuous link to excellence, someone who scored 94 goals in 150 games, playing as a striker. Before him, India had Bhaichung Bhutia in that position and the transition was seamless. Coaches came and went, but from Bob Houghton to Stephen Constantine and now Igor Stimac, one thing remained constant. Chhetri was always the first name on the team sheet, a player who could score all kinds of goals.
The departing great has urged Indian football to find a new No. 9, but there’s apparently no one in sight. A few names can be thrown into the mix — Vikram Partap Singh, Rahim Ali, Ishan Pandita, Rahul KP and Lallianzuala Chhangte. But they don’t play as out-and-out strikers for their clubs in the Indian Super League (ISL), which has turned Indian forwards into wide midfielders. Coaches rely on foreign recruits for goals. Little wonder then that India don’t have a ready replacement for Chhetri. It is unlikely to get one at least in the near future.
“Yes, there’s a complete void,” said Shyam Thapa, a former India striker who also served as the chairman of the All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) technical committee. “When I was at the AIFF, I repeatedly urged the federation to go to the grassroots to find the next Sunil. Spot talents and nurture them. But my words fell on deaf ears,” Thapa, who made the 1978 Calcutta League derby memorable with his famous bicycle kick, told RevSportz.
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“ISL teams don’t have Indian strikers. Budding Indian strikers don’t get proper exposure. Even if they are picked, they mostly play out of position. In such a scenario, it’s impossible to find a proper No. 9. Let alone scoring goals from open play, I don’t know who would be the next penalty-taker in the Indian team,” Thapa added.
So, how will the national team fill a Chhetri-sized hole? “They will have to look for stop-gap arrangements. From my experience of coaching, Manvir Singh can be groomed into a centre-forward. He plays as a wide player for Mohun Bagan, but has the attributes to play centrally. He will have to sharpen his poaching skills and he needs good coaching for that,” Thapa advised.
Former India captain Bhaskar Ganguly called for the revival of disbanded tournaments to expand the talent pool. “The BCCI holds the world’s most lucrative cricket league, the IPL. But they haven’t done away with any domestic tournament. No wonder that Indian cricket has such a vast talent pool,” Ganguly told RevSportz.
“Indian football, on the other hand, has seen the demise of so many tournaments. Tournaments like Federation Cup, Bordoloi Trophy, Stafford Cup, Nagjee Trophy and Rovers Cup have been scrapped, because the focus is solely on ISL. The AIFF should try to revive at least some of those tournaments, for that will give upcoming Indian players quality platforms to showcase their talent. Who after Sunil? I don’t have an answer. Indian football doesn’t have an answer,” the star goalkeeper of the 1970s and 1980s lamented.
The FIFA World Cup qualifier against Kuwait at Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on June 6 will be Chhetri’s last. An era will come to an end. And there’s no one at the moment to usher in a new era.
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