NEWS
Bhaichung Bhutia, Indian football icon, picked Sahal Abdul Samad, Kerala Blasters youngster on Saturday after captain Sunil Chhetri’s retirement to be the next big scorer for the country.
Sahal, one of the youngest members of the Indian line-up, made his debut in the 2019 Kings Cup, with his dribbling and passing ability has totally impressed coach Igor Stimac and Chhetri.
During an Instagram live session, Bhutia said, “In terms of scoring, Sahal and come and fit in. He’s playing more as link-up, an attacking midfielder. He just needs to start getting confidence of scoring, taking shots.”
Kerala Blasters roped him in 2016-17 season, having risen to prominence Santosh Trophy, and by winning the ISL Emerging Player he continued to impress and not only the ISL but also the AIFF Emerging Player of the year in 2018-19.
“Once he starts scoring, he can be a great finisher. He can take that position (of Sunil Chhetri). He is one future star of India.”
Bhutia said the 23-year-old.
In the post Chhetri era, for captaincy, Bhutia either picked Sandesh Jhingan or Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.”There are two players who could lead the team. One is Sandesh and the other is Gurpreet once Sunil thinks of retiring.”
The quality of the tournament would suffer if the Five-foreigner rule is reduced to four in the future, Bhutia spoke about the ISL.
“It’s important for ISL to have good quality football. With three foreigners and one Asian quota, I-League is doing it right. It’s about giving more opportunity to Indian players in I-League so that they get noticed rom big clubs from ISL.. it can be a great platform.
“For ISL it’s important that the quality remains. Maybe the quality will go down and people might not watch it. The balance has to be there, Indian players are talented, willing to work hard opportunities will come in.”
Bhutia suggested on technique development of the Indian footballers and said rather than eyeing European Leagues they should target playing in the Asian club football.
“Don’t always think of going to European Leagues. You can also target playing in Qatar League, Korean League, Chinese League or Japanese League even UAE has good club standards. You get confidence, learn a lot.”
“To play abroad, your national team has to be recognised. Why don’t we have Brazilian cricketers in IPL? Because they do not play cricket. They also think the same way for India (in football). So we need to improve our performance. If we play atleast quarter-finals or semi-finals in the Asian Cup, then the number of players will also start moving out. “
He says that the key is to develop the technical aspect of players. He concluded,” the focus should be on technical aspects. Our build is more or less like South-Americans players. If we can try and build up coaches at grassroots, we should have a very very strong base.
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