Filling the huge void left by the iconic Sunil Chhetri’s retirement is the biggest challenge facing the Indian football team at the moment, the legendary I M Vijayan said on Tuesday while playing down the sacking of head coach Igor Stimac.
The high-profile Stimac was removed by the All India Football Federation on Monday due to lack of results in recent times but former stars Vijayan and Climax Lawrence are not worried about the decision that brought to an end the Croatian World Cupper’s five-year reign as the head coach of the senior men’s team.
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The absence of a ready replacement for Chhetri is a bigger cause for concern for them, who are now part of the AIFF’s technical committee with Vijayan heading it.
Both Vijayan and Lawrence’s view is that a coach can be appointed at any time but a striker, of the calibre of Chhetri, cannot be unearthed overnight.
Men like Vijayan and Lawrence, who have served the Indian team with distinction, know that the sacking of Stimac was on expected lines following a forgettable AFC Asian Cup and the failure to go beyond the second round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers despite getting a relatively easy draw.
The AIFF brass, including the members of the executive committee and those in the technical committee, was on the same page as far as Stimac was concerned after the disappointing campaign in the World Cup Qualifiers.
“It was a unanimous decision,” said Vijayan.
“The coach will appointed as early as possible so that the team doesn’t lose out on anything before the next FIFA window in September. They will soon sit together and start the process of finding a coach,” Vijayan, one of India’s finest players, said.
“However, how do you find a replacement for Chhetri. That is going to very difficult as a great player like Chhetri comes rarely. We have some good strikers, and we are trying to get them to play as much as possible.
“The biggest issue is that our strikers don’t get a lot of playing time in domestic leagues, be it the ISL or the I-League.” In tournaments such as the ISL and I-League, the clubs look to recruit foreigners that serves their interest as they want to win trophies.
While that has been a stumbling block in the development of quality home-bred strikers, Lawrence feels that it’s high time the game’s stakeholders train their focus on scouting talent at the grassroots.
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“Grassroots is where we have to focus. Yes, Indian strikers are not getting to play the amount of time they should, but there is no point cribbing over that. That’s how professional football works. We have to look for talent at the grassroots and mould them into quality strikers,” Lawrence said.
“True, you are not going to suddenly get another Sunil Chhetri, another Bhaichung Bhutia and another IM Vijayan. So, we have to focus on building a good team and not just hope for one great striker to emerge and bail the team,” Lawrence added.
The likes of Vikram Partap Singh, Manvir Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Liston Colaco and Rahim Ali have emerged as options to lead India’s charge upfront in the near future but Chhetri, with his record 94 international goals over a glorious 19-year career, has raised the bar too high for them to emulate.
The AIFF terminated Stimac’s contract exactly a year before it was to expire in the wake of the side’s ouster from the second round of FIFA World Cup Qualifiers.
The 56-year-old Stimac, who was appointed as the head coach in 2019, was in last October given an extension until 2026 by the sport’s apex body.
As per a clause in the contract, the AIFF now might have to pay Stimac nearly USD 360,000 (Rs 3 crore approximately) as a severance package, a hefty amount for a federation struggling with funds and having reduced its competitions budget this year.
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