Diego Maradona shows off his skills in India
India is vast, fast developing and passionate about the game. So why has no Indian player made his mark in Europe?
The Champions League is missing something. There are 1.2 billion Indians. Four million of them (or their descendants) live in Europe. Yet no Indian footballer has featured in the competition, let alone in its showpiece final.
It's not that India lacks passion. Last year, German goalkeeper Oliver Kahn made his farewell appearance for Bayern Munich in front of an ecstatic 125,000-strong crowd - not at the club's own ground (which holds nearly 70,000) but at the home of Mohun Bagan in Kolkata, India.
In the same city, last December, 50,000 locals cheered Diego Maradona's regal progress from the airport. And the cumulative TV audience for the 2006 World Cup in India - 675 million - was on a par with the country's most popular soaps.
Former Tottenham Hotspur striker Garth Crooks states: "That crowd! The potential! It's absolutely extraordinary." Crooks visited India in 2007 to represent FIFA at the opening of India's first fully professional national league, the I-League. "Sepp Blatter is right to have one eye firmly on India," he says.
Mission
India's mission is to climb the world rankings from 144th to a berth more befitting a country with the world's second-largest population where clubs battle over two of football's oldest trophies.
No easy task. But Japan, South Korea and the USA have all proved that concerted long-term development can pay off.
German-born journalist Arunava Chaudhuri, who watched Kahn's farewell in Kolkata, knows this passion may attract recession-hit European clubs intrigued by a lucrative business opportunity.
"In the past year, European clubs have realised India is a huge market. The success of Indian Premier League cricket helped. When they saw it could raise £1.1bn (€1.2bn) out of the blue, they knew there was something in India for football, too."
Some fear that England's Premier League sides, ever on the commercial front foot, see a territory ripe for exploitation. As Chaudhuri says: "Whoever finds the Indian David Beckham will be sitting on a gold mine."
Development
Arsenal, Manchester United and Everton have sent scouts, run training days and tournaments, and mulled over football development centres to find - and nurture - the best among the 20-million Indians who play the game competitively. But how deeply are European clubs committed to improving Indian football?
Crooks says it is a question of give and take: "If you're going to compete with cricket [in India], having Premier League clubs generating enthusiasm has to be a good thing.
"But clubs may tap into the talent and deprive the Indian public of seeing that talent develop on home soil. It would be wrong for a club not to put something back into India if they feel they can take a large financial payday from here."
"It's every club's right to showcase themselves in India," says Piara Powar, director of Kick It Out. "But to be effective they need middle- to long-term commitment."
For Chaudhuri that means: "Not three years, not five years, but ten years to get a return on investment. If clubs come and play in India, they must leave a legacy."
Excerpt from UEFA Champions magazine, to read this article in full, please visit indianfootball.com
