NEW DELHI: Two days back, Indian football legend Sunil Chhetri etched his name deeper into the history books by becoming the all-time highest goalscorer in the Indian Super League (ISL).
Chhetri, the Bengaluru FC captain, calmly converted a penalty to secure his 64th ISL goal, surpassing Bartholomew Ogbeche, and adding yet another record to his illustrious career.
His goal not only gave Bengaluru FC a crucial lead over Mohun Bagan but also reinforced the lasting legacy of a player who recently bid farewell to international football with 94 goals in 151 matches for India.
With the national team grappling with the absence of a Chhetri-like figure, former Manchester City and Chelsea star Terry Phelan, now serving as the sporting director at I-League 2nd Division side South United FC, shares his insights in an exclusive conversation with TimesofIndia.com.
From India’s fall to the 126th spot in the FIFA rankings to the hunt for the next Sunil Chhetri. Terry, with his vast experience, has shed light on what the future holds for Indian football.
If we talk about Indian football, India’s current FIFA ranking is 126th, what is your take on the current situation?
Well, it goes back to a clear strategy, what the All Indian Indian Football Federation (AIFF) wants. Yes, they have got a pathway. We’ve all seen the pathway and the roadmap, what they’re trying to deliver.
We’ve all seen that Arsene Wenger has been in India with the FIFA contingency to help and grow Indian football by helping to deliver quality education at the top, which will drip down into clubs and academies and to coaches.
But as a whole for Indian football, we have to look deeper into it. Again, it starts with continuity and cohesion. There have been a million academies and football clubs in India. We’ve got associations, we’ve got district associations. Maybe it’s about everybody coming together, sitting down and saying, “Look, where are we going to improve, how we’re going to improve.” There’s a lot been said about Indian football of late, and the results of late haven’t been great.
A new manager’s gone in there. We need to give him time. As I said, FIFA will come in. Hopefully, the AIFF can build talent centres, maybe national talent, maybe four or five of them in and around India have more technical directors in football associations, more game managers, and football development managers in district associations, so they can go out and fine-tune and look at talent.
I’ve been all over India, and I see talent everywhere, but are we really nurturing that talent the way we want to nurture it?
Where is it going wrong for the Indian national team?
It (being the head coach of the Indian national team) is a difficult job. It’s probably one of the hardest jobs in the world if I’m honest. It’s about nurturing them, youth players, and having a holistic approach and really having high-performance centres with the best of people in there, your sports science, your best coaches, we’re getting there, but it’s going to take more time. I know people have been saying when’s it going to change? When’s it going to change?
We’ve been in it for a long time. I only believe that AIFF will have the answers. But for me, if you want the growth of football, it is national talent centres, technical directors, maybe local associations and district associations that grow the game.
They get out. They can look at clubs, they can look at players, they can look at the youth, they can look at games, they can look at the scouting system. And that’s paramount.
If we want to go further and we want to compete not with Europe, but we’ve got to compete in Asia first.
We have to be the best in Asia first before we even think about competing with Europe, South America, Africa and so on.
How will India find the next Sunil Chhetri?
Sunil has been a major influence in Indian football, especially for the national team. He’s been absolutely a wonderful servant. I’ve talked to him on a number of occasions when we’ve been doing TV together. And, he always says, “You know, if I would have known a lot more what I know now when I was younger, I probably could have played in Europe.”
They’ll have a scouting system, the All India Football Federation, but you need top, top strikers. And I think at the bottom of the spectrum, it’s about developing individuals and not developing teams again to go out and win trophies.
It’s about developing individuals to play club football first and then hopefully get into the youth national sides and progress that way. But again, only the All Indian Football Federation will know that and their scouting system and their coaches.
There is also a general feeling among the Indian fans that ISL pays the players so much that they don’t want to go abroad. What is your take on that?
Well, this is the problem you’ve got, isn’t it? I always say, “If you want to grow as a football player and you want to be the best you can, travel abroad, see what it’s like, and come back with success stories.”
There are a million kids and parents who want to take their kids abroad to see what it’s like, to see how it’s like.
They’re earning money (in ISL). There’s nothing wrong with earning money because they have to look after their families. They’ve worked hard to earn that money.
But now, if we want to compete with the rest of the world, maybe the players need to be playing in a higher, demanding league with more games in it. They should be playing best with best, best against best.
What do you think Manolo Marquez should be doing to get the Indian team back on track?
It’s always difficult because when you’ve had a manager in there for five years, and then when a new manager comes in, he’s got to look at everything, what has been done beforehand.
He’s going to have his own ideas. He’s going to have his own coaching staff. He’s going to be doing two roles, which is very, very difficult. I don’t know how that’s going to work.
Maybe it will give the AIFF more time to maybe look for the man to take him to the next level. I don’t know. But I just think he’s got to go in there with an open mind. He’s got to galvanize the players with a nucleus of good cohesion and get them on board with his ideas. I think that’s key. That’s what he’ll probably need to do.
I can’t tell him what to do. He’s a very experienced man. He knows Indian football. He’ll know the players he wants. He’ll know the players who are playing in the ISL because he’ll be in and around the ISL, which is a good thing.
He’ll see plenty of matches, and it will give him a good idea. But at the end of the day, he’ll need time, he’ll need patience and he’ll need all the support and back he can possibly get.