When the Fifa Under-17 World Cup — the nation’s first ever Fifa competition — begins next October, it will be the high point of an adventure that has lasted two years for the junior national youth team’s coach Nicolai Adam. After all, in April 2015, the German took over as the junior head coach with one clearly defined objective.
“My job is to prepare the millennial generation for this U-17 World Cup, which will then hopefully be a catalyst for the growth of football in India,” Adam said. “After the World Cup, we want to bring football to 11 million children. From a young age and starting from scratch, kids will learn about football in youth leagues, which we will establish, as you can’t find them everywhere yet. I hope India seize this opportunity and that everyone co-operates to make it a great event and ensure India have a footballing future. The potential and the interest are definitely there, and the excitement ahead of the U-17 World Cup is massive.”
India are currently in the lower reaches of the world rankings and mostly play against other Asian nations. The world’s second-most populous country has so far been unable to make a serious impression on the international stage and has never represented Asia at a Fifa competition. That will change next year, and Adam is preparing his team to make sure their tournament is not over after only three group matches.
“We need this period to play at the highest level, so we can get closer to where we want to be next year. At this level it’s just a fact that, if you make mistakes, you get punished. We need to cut out our own mistakes and conversely force the opposition into making them. Our playing style isn’t based on sitting back and staying deep. We encourage the players towards an attractive style of play. That includes actively winning the ball back, counter-attacking quickly and keeping possession.”
India qualified for the 2016 Asian U-16 Championship at home. They played a 3-3 draw with Saudi Arabia. They also lost against United Arab of Emirates and Iran and finished bottom of the group, but their improvements were again evident at the 2016 BRICS U-17 Football Cup, where they impressed in close defeats to Brazil (1-3), Russia (0-1) and China (0-1).
“We were competitive in phases of each game. If you’re India and you only lose 0-1 to Russia or 1-3 against Brazil, that’s not bad,” said Adam. “We were close to getting a point. The preparation we’ve done in the last year has been very important for us to get to a level where we could win a game 1-0. We obviously want to record some good results, but I’m also making sure I coach the players well because after the World Cup, the work carries on.”
Adam is currently on tour with his team in preparation for practice tournaments in Brazil and Russia before the main event next October. Nevertheless, he and the All India Football Federation are arranging training camps all over the country to find talented young players who can strengthen the team in 2017.
Furthermore, a new program called Overseas Scouting Project, which was launched by AIFF and with the support of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) recently, should provide every eligible Indian living outside India a platform to present his football-playing talent directly to the scouts of India’s U-17 World Cup team.
