The Indian football team jumped 11 places to be 137th in the latest list released on Thursday and with this, the side achieved its best FIFA ranking in over six years. India was ranked 137th in August 2010, which stayed India’s best ever FIFA Ranking since then.
Indian team earlier in September defeated the 114th ranked Puerto Rico in an international friendly in Mumbai and also it has garnered 230 points for the month.
Is Stephen Constantine the man behind the development of Indian Football?
National Coach Stephen Constantine sounded delighted but wasn’t willing to read too much into it. Stephen Constantine talked to aiff.com and said that “When I came over for my second stint, one of my tasks was to improve our FIFA Rankings. With the results which we have had so far, it is clear that we have succeeded.”
India was ranked 171st when Constantine took over as national coach for the second time in February last year and slipped to 173rd in March even before Constantine could have his first game in charge against Nepal, which India eventually won 2-0 on aggregate.
What did Stephen say about the Development?
He continuously stressed by saying that “It’s been a total Team effort. Unless Mr Patel (AIFF President Praful Patel) and Mr Das (AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das) allowed me to do the things and the manner I wanted it to be done, this won’t have been possible ever.” Further, he added that “But this is just the beginning of the long-term plan which we envisage for Indian Football. I am certainly not over the moon as I feel my Team can achieve much more.”
Constantine mentioned about the impact the national team has made after reducing the average age from around 32 to 24. “We have been able to reduce the average age of the team from around 32 to 24 which is very significant indeed,” he quipped.
“The AIFF Academies were set with a purpose and if you look at my team, there is continuity. We have introduced so many youngsters from the AIFF Youth Development setup and also from the AIFF scouting network,” he maintained.
