Indian football: Igor Stimac releases six players from King's Cup preparatory camp

There is a serious competition to get into that final list of 23 who would be representing the country in the King’s Cup, said newly appointed coach Igor Stimac.

Igor Stimac's first managerial test as Indian head coach will be at the King's Cup in Thailand from June 5.

Indian national football team coach Igor Stimac on Monday released six players from the 37-man preliminary squad which has been training in Delhi from May 21 for the King's Cup that will be held in Thailand in June.

Goalkeeper Vishal Kaith, midfielders Germanpreet Singh, Nandha Kumar, Redeem Tlang, Bikramjit Singh and forward Sumeet Passi have been released and given individual training programmes.

“Each one of them has been given an individual working programme which is to be executed in the future by themselves in an attempt to improve on their fitness, technical and tactical abilities,” said Stimac.

“I am very happy with the efforts put in by all the players till now. There is a serious competition to get into that final list of 23 who would be representing the country in the King’s Cup,” the newly appointed coach added.

READ | Igor Stimac 'happy' with the quality of Indian football players

Stimac admitted that the team is aware of the expectations ahead of King's Cup. “We have accomplished phase 1 on our working programme. We have had meetings with the staff and players about their work accomplishments till today. We have informed them about expectations for the following week,” he explained.

The King's Cup, a FIFA-sanctioned International ‘A’ tournament organised by the Football Association of Thailand since 1968, will be held in Buriram from June 5-8. India previously participated in the tournament in 1977 and 1981.

India plays its first match against Curacao on June 5, with host Thailand taking on Vietnam in the other match on the same day. The winners of both matches will qualify for the final, while the losing teams will play the third-place playoff.

The final will be played on June 8 at 6.15 pm IST.