The man behind India's meteoric rise
Seven-time champions India turning up to the ongoing SAFF Suzuki Cup with a young side was neither unexpected nor was their cruise to the final unpredictable. In fact, India's failure to reach the final of the seven-team football extravaganza would have been a more surprising incident.
Comprising of under-23 players, India posted two effortless wins against Sri Lanka and Maldives in the group stage before storming into the final with a 3-1 win over archrivals Pakistan. Their style of football has so far been a joy to behold as the youngsters' synchronisation and fast-paced game has seen them outplay the senior national sides of other South Asian nations.
Over the past four years India have gained 75 places and jumped to 96th place in the FIFA rankings. They have also qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup after seven years and are all set to explore new horizons after having proved their worth in the sub-continent by winning seven of the 11 SAFF titles on offer so far.
The man behind India's meteoric rise is head coach Stephen Constantine, who has been working with the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) since 2015.
"When I came here India was 170 [in the FIFA Rankings] and now India is 96. I have been given complete freedom by the AIFF. I get more or less what I want from the federation. They have done more than what they did in the past and gave me the tools to be successful," the Englishman said.
"We have fantastic backroom staffs, including a sports science coach. For the first time, we have bought a GPS system for about 20,000 dollars to gather information which is necessary for international matches. We track everything the players do in the training and keep records. We have the best physios," Constantine said when asked how India entered the top 100.
"It is combination of all of those but you have to thank the players, who work very hard, and I believe they have to work very hard to get the results," the shaven-headed 55-year-old added.
Despite all those modern advancements, players are key to any development in football and the AIFF and domestic clubs are playing a big role in grooming them from the grassroots level before throwing them into the melting pot of the very competitive franchise-based Indian Super League (ISL) and Indian League.
Constantine's current crop of players for the SAFF Suzuki Cup is from those outfits of the I-League and ISL and his main objective is to analyse the youngsters ahead of next year's Asian Cup in the UAE.
"We have a group of young boys who are hungry and want to be successful. They have the carrot -- which is the Asian Cup -- in front of them and if anyone wants to play, they have to perform. I think some of them showed their positional character today (Wednesday) and can be selected for the Asian Cup squad," Constantine said after beating Pakistan 3-1 on Wednesday.
"I think the secret [behind the success] is that the boys trained very, very hard and the backroom staff also worked very hard to keep these boys fit. It was a team effort, not mine. I think that is the recipe of our success," said Constantine, adding that the standards of Indian domestic competitions were improving every year.
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