While the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is slowly improving the efficiency of its own operations, another manner in which youth development is being improved in India is foreign investment from big European clubs. This latest development is unsurprising given the manner in which Indian Premier League cricket raised £1.1bn out of the blue.
While clubs see India as another potential talent pool to tap into, there may be bigger potential to market their own club products and merchandise, given the increase in interest in the European leagues instead of the domestic game. Supporters are likely to prefer to see players such as Wayne Rooney, Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi on the small screen instead of local stars Baichung Bhutia and Sunil Chettri (who had an unsuccessful trial at Coventry City), a trend which could be detrimental to the long-term success of the domestic game.
As explored in the first article in this series exploring Indian football, there are a number of problems surrounding Indian football. The 2007 formation of the I-league (a revamp of the declining National Football League) is just the first step in the solution of improving India’s football scene, by making professional football in India a viable career. The league has been expanded by four sides for the 2009-10 season, with sides formed in Pune and Shillong and Kerala, revealing the growing interest in the game throughout the nation.
The formation of sides such as these are slowly eradicating the term ‘institutional teams’ - the notion that most sides in the country are off-shoots of companies for the social benefit of workers, with Air India FC the most obvious example. Several sides have formed in such a fashion, limiting the potential of the fan base size and economic growth of the club. This is because the majority of the clubs’ fan-base consists of the main company’s workforce. Regional pride is very important in India and clubs representing whole states instead of single companies will do well to spread the interest in the game.
Imagine you are a youngster growing up in India. The odds are that you are likely to idolize cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar instead of relatively unknown Baichung Bhutia. There could even be a possibility you may have never heard of the latter and why not?
The former is one of the greatest batsmen in cricket, while the latter has reached the modest heights of playing for then Division Two side Bury in 1999. Bhutia’s seemingly modest achievement was said to be the breakthrough needed for players from the subcontinent to sign for European clubs (although Mohammed Abdul Salim, nicknamed the ‘Indian Juggler’, was the first Indian to sign for a European club when he joined Celtic in 1937 – he returned homesick after a few games despite his obvious talent (boots or barefoot)).
Barcelona are being tipped to complete a €13m deal for the Brazilian striking sensation Keirrison in the next few days. Yet the striker, on loan at Palmeiras from the obscure fourth division club Desportivo Brasil, will not come without controversy due to the nature of his imminent departure from Palmeiras to Josep Guardiola’s side.
Questions surrounding his third-party ownership by the sports marketing company Traffic and his mentality in a high pressure environment have led to concerns over his suitability to the impeccable standards set by the Catalan club.
After an excellent debut season as an 18-year-old, Keirrison, or K9 as he is nicknamed, scored 12 goals in Coritiba’s promotion drive in the second division of the Campeonato Brasileiro in 2007. Critics claimed that once regularly competing in the Brazilian Serie A, the youngster’s flaws would be more visible.
For a billionaire director of ACS, the a construction, engineering and energy conglomerate that employs 150,000, operates in 50 countries and had revenues last year of just over €4 billion, a third of that profit, Florentino Perez does not live like one. His favourite dish consists of the exotic British fried egg and chips.
The new Real Madrid president lives in the results business, first signing AC Milan midfielder Kaka for €68m and now he looks set to break the world record of €75.1m he paid for French playmaker Zinedine Zidane by signing Cristiano Ronaldo for €94m.
Such high-profile signings come in the first few weeks of his presidency, players, who former president Ramon Calderon (now being investigated for voting irregularities) pined after for two years, failing to sign either and alienating the selling club to the extent that Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson said:
Do you think I would enter into a contract with that mob? No chance. I would not sell them a virus. That is a ‘no’ by the way. There is no agreement whatsoever between the clubs.
Perez is undertaking a high-risk strategy, which he hopes will multiply the club’s profit through merchandising, shirt sales, sponsorship revenue and increased ticket sales due to the high-profile image of Kaka and Ronaldo.
This is an excellent video compiling the top 50 European Champions League goals, chosen out thousands. While ITV’s punditry may leave much to be desired, the quality of the goals overshadows it by quite a distance. Enjoy!
Yet again, England is being placed as strong contenders for the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. All after two giants of world football were dispatched in the Ukraine and Slovakia. Patrick Barclay, now of The Times, has claimed only Spain present a viable threat to England’s quest for global supremacy.
To return from Wembley late on Wednesday night, turn on the television and find Argentina being mangled by Bolivia was to be reminded of just how close England are to world supremacy.
This idea is flawed, with the closest contenders all masters of possession football – a style which England undoubtedly struggle against. Brazil, Argentina, Spain all play a ‘tiki-taka’ or ‘pass and move’ game, and even Lippi’s Italy can play fluid counter-attacking that can expose the holes in a static England. The Germans always perform on the big stage, while a number of other sides are also capable of defeating England in a one-off game and vice-versa. Holland, Russia, Turkey are also strong contenders and it would be logical to place England below that bracket currently, given the failure to qualify for Euro 2008 and the inability to play against sides who can starve England of the ball.
There is no doubt that a number of players from Brazil’s recent triumph at the South American U20 Championships will make the journey across the Atlantic and become successful players. Here are a few from that excellent crop of youngsters from the U20 Brazil side, and others who didn’t join it, but are equally promising.
Dentinho
Bruno Ferreira Bonfim, was ironically given the nickname ‘Dentinho’ meaning ‘little tooth’, as a youngster. In his first season at Corinthians, the striker scored 14 goals as the club regained a spot in the top flight. The youngster played on the left wing for Brazil in the U20 games, revealing his pace and trickery. He could have already arrived in Europe had proposals from Arsenal or Olympiakos not been rejected. A slight figure, his finishing abilities are similar to Henrik Larsson, while his pace and trickery is not unlike Robinho.
Arsenal appear to be experiencing what Bayern Munich and AC Milan did in the past few years. The side has transparent flaws which from the outside seem quite easily fixable, with balance being the buzz word bandied around Arsene Wenger’s recent press conferences, along with the now-famous quotes such as ‘We lacked a little bit of sharpness’ and ‘We played with a little bit of a handbrake’. The imbalance in the side has meant neither priority of goals and clean sheets is fulfilled simultaneously.
Early in the season, creatively and goals were at a premium, unfortunately for Arsenal, at both ends of the pitch. The lack of a midfield shield or enforcer meant too many runners bypassed the ball-watching Denilson and Arsenal were conceding far too many chances. The focus shifted once Fabregas strained knee ligaments in the home clash against Liverpool, with Song the only viable option. The decrease in attacking potency catalysed a shift to a more defensive approach, with Clichy and Sagna reducing the frequency of their attacking forays, Song and Denilson breaking up opposition attacks but creating largely nothing. The pressure of creativity fell largely on the shoulders of Samir Nasri, a promising signing in his first six months of English football. To be fair to the former Marseille youth, he had largely adapted very swiftly, but on several occasions, he has opted to pass back to his full-back rather than attempt to put his marker on the back foot, ending any attacking momentum. The club was also reliant on Robin van Persie for goals and assists; he provided both through the whole of January. Such pressure on two players is in most cases ephemeral.
