German-born Nicolai Adam has been shaping the fortunes of India U-17 squad since his appointment by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) 15 months ago. Keeping in view the lager picture - with the U-17 World Cup to be hosted by India next year - the former Azerbaijan Youth Team coach in a tete-a-tete with speaks about his team’s prospects at the forthcoming AFC U-16 Championships to be held in Goa beginning September 15.
Excerpts
A: As you are aware we had a three-month camp in Germany and Norway. We played a lot of exposure matches. It was full on football every day. We watched the U-19 European Championship, Rio Olympics, Bundesliga 2nd and 3rd Division games. We had lots of training and altogether played 19 matches. We came back on August 23 and since then we are having one session a day. Everything was going smooth and we were are looking at the tournament to start. But then we are hampered with some injury problems. We are missing defender, Remy (Reamsochung Chongompipa Aimol) who had his leg broken in Germany and now we have Ninthoinganba who plays on either wing currently in hospital with an inflamed appendix. And on top of that we have the AFC rule where some players are not born on or after September 1, 2000 and thus cannot be part for the final round now. But they are definitely players I want to use for the World Cup. The players affected by the AFC rule are Tamal Naskar (goalkeeper), Abhijit Sarkar(midfielder), Joysana Singh (forward) and Hendry Antonay(defender). To cut a long story short, preparations went well. But some injuries are unfortunate and these are things you cannot change. In football sometimes you get injured. The inflamed appendix is a very bad timing for us but you cannot blame the boy (Ninthoinganba). We will do everything in our capacity to make him play with the help of medical attention. He might need an operation in the next couple of days. So we cannot use him.
A: First of all this boy (Amay Morajkar) cannot even play because of the AFC rules as he was not even in the final list for the qualifiers. I do not know how he came to that conclusion as the boy was not with us in Germany and the whole time he was with the ‘B’ Team as he is not good enough. It is completely nonsense. In fact, we gave Goa a chance to play an exhibition match and show their talent. But they dropped out for whatever the reason was. May be they were not prepared, I do not remember. It was a long time ago, before we left for Germany. I am sick and tired of the question why Goan players are not part of the National team. The Goan Federation has to do a better job if they want to develop their players and may be there still could be a chance to pick a Goan. But right now, there is no Goan in the squad.
A: AIFF Director of Scouting Abhishek Yadav should be coming here. Soon we will be having a press conference where the whole project will be introduced to the broader public. But I am hopefully it will be useful to me. An overseas country programme for Indians living abroad with an Indian passport is needed for all age groups, not only in football. We have to keep the recent Rio Olympics in mind where the results were not great given the size of India and the number of medals they got. This could be a blue-print for other sports as well. In respect to Abhishek Yadav, our Director of Scouting, I think he has done an amazing job. You will soon see for yourself an online portal launched which will help us to find out on sports talent abroad. You will be enabled to get in touch with them and finally come to the normal way of scouting “ seeing them physically which has to be done. But the key first is to know about the talent not only in football, but as said earlier, in any kind of sport. The scouting done in Dubai, UAE brought us four new players which were thereby invited to join us in Germany. But they were not good enough to join the squad. But it was a start. We will still look and try to find players that can strengthen the current squad.
A: Our squad is generally too small in size. We need more players to be on the level to those we have right now. The injured players should be available and the AFC rules should be changed, then only I would be happy, to be honest. In the end only 11 players can play anyway with three substitutions. For the World Cup it is 18+3 in the end. We are not too far away from that. But that said, there are not many good players in football for a coach.
A: We have submitted a final list of 21 players. The maximum we can put on the list is 23. But I am not putting anyone in who is not useful for me just for the sake of the rules.
A: It was a beautiful exposure for the team. The team did well against the top teams in Germany. We played a lot of Youth Bundesliga clubs. We played Luxembourg twice. We played Norway. We played against the State selection team in Germany. It was a different experience for the boys. We were focused every day on football. We had a special fitness guy coming for a detailed fitness workout. I cannot complain. It went all well except for the last match when we were 3-0 ahead against FC Duisburg, another Youth Bundesliga club and Remy unfortunately broke his leg. But then again this is sport, and it happens sometimes.
A: You might also be aware that we have to play the BRICS tournament right after the AFC. Best case scenario , in four weeks from September 15 “ October 15 the side would feature in 11 international matches “ AFC - 6 and BRICS - 5. The minimum number of games we could play in the same period would be 7 international matches “ AFC “ 4 and BRICS “ 3. Show me anywhere in the world where this happens. Why I tell you all this is because rotation (of players) is the key. We have to give every player exposure, match practice. Also take care of their well-being. 11 or even 7 matches in four weeks is impossible to play for any player. Even for a goalkeeper, you may think they are not moving much but in fact, they move 4-6 kms per match it is actually too much. But we are very happy to get that exposure.
A: They have improved 100 per cent from the AIFF Youth Cup. The problem we had then was that we had six weeks of preparation time with no big exposure, now we had three months of huge exposure overseas. The squad now is about 30 per cent above the level we were after the AIFF Youth Cup.
A: To start with, it does not allow me to have certain players eligible for the U-17 World Cup next year to be a part of the aforesaid Championship. My goal is the U-17 World Cup and the AFC tourneys is a small step to a larger step. The better the opponents are, better it is for us in order to get prepared for October 2017 (U-17 World Cup). I do not know why Group A is called the Group of Death. Because in that latter tournament the best teams of that age group of the whole world will come. Top teams like Germany, Belgium, Mexico, Nigeria are set to play. What do you call it then? It is not a Group of Death. We have to play against normal opponents. We are happy to meet them and let us see how we will do.
A: Yes we have seen the footage of our first opponents, that is, UAE already who we play on September 15. We will then watch the taped videos of Saudi Arabia and Iran who play the same day ahead of our next two matches against this opposition. Similarly, our rivals will watch us.
A: Our aim is to qualify on merit for the World Cup. That means we have to make it to the Semifinals which is a huge task. I say this despite the fact we cannot use certain players now because of the AFC rules. But what I can promise is that it will be very difficult to beat us and that I can guarantee. The rest we shall see how it goes.
