I have read some interviews of Technical directors and coaches of Clairefintaine (France Football Factory) and Anderlecht (Belgium) on their Football philosophy.
They are targeting training 220 - 250 players between the age group 13 to 15 and then staying some more time with them.
They expect few to leave for other clubs but their realistic target is 10 to 15 % will go on and play First Division in Europe.
So you are looking at around 30 players who play for top clubs.(Benteke, Batshuyai, Fellaini types)
Out of that 30 also, you will have 7 to 8 players good enough to play regularly for national team - then you are looking at Pogba, Mbappe, Hazard, Lukaku category players.
Those countries France, Belgium, Netherlands are blessed with immigrant population in cities - originating form African colonies Congo, Morocco, Algeria, Ghana etc.
Kids are physically gifted with athleticism and Football is a way to move forward in life.
The scouting system is so competitive that Antoine Griezmann did not get antry in French Academies when he was a kid.
Now look at India. How many recruits do we have in AIFF Elite Academy, Arrows or whatever you call them. Small pool of 25-30 players will generate 3 or 4 good players - 2 good enough for national team !!!
Chennai City Football Club will face Al Riffa FC of Bahrain in the AFC Champions League qualifying playoffs . Al Riffa are currently 10th in the Bahrain League .
Marcus Mergulhao, journalist with The Times of India | Sports in Goa. Often known for his amazing story-telling on Indian Football. Read his story here:
"I've been covering football for the past 20-years now since I joined the local newspaper Herald in 1999 straight out of college. But I've never played football professionally. In fact, all my life, I played volleyball which many people don't know. And I played the sport at a decent level, captained Goa as well but football I've not played beyond college. Wasn't a good player either, was made a goalkeeper, largely because of my height
Everyone here (in Goa) follows football, so I followed the sport all along. Watching football since 1994 maybe when I was in the 10th standard. Basically, I just loved sports and one cannot make a living out of writing about any other sport besides football in Goa, so then I just started writing about the sport.
There's a world of difference in how football was covered back when I started in 1999 and now in 2019. One of my best memories from covering/writing about the sport happened in 2016. It was sometime in February I guess; we had gone to a junket to Paris for a UEFA Champions League match. PSG was supposed to play Chelsea, if I'm not mistaken, either pre-quarters or QF.
So, we were all walking towards the media box and suddenly felt someone tapping on my shoulder and I turned back, it was Zico! Never in my wildest dreams, did I ever think of Zico - Arthur Antunes Coimbra ever tapping on my back and saying hello. And that's what has happened with ISL coming into being, yes it does has its pros and cons but I do believe as a journalist, one of the most defining factors for me has been that it has given us accessibility to some of the top players. The thought of sitting across a Robert Perez or a Zico and talking football was something unthinkable. One has only heard or watched about these players. So that was one of my best memories.
It just happened all of a sudden and I've always had a good rapport with him (Zico), always had access to him but to have him besides me in Paris of all places was amazing.
To share something about players close to home (Goa), this is one story I tell everyone I meet. My favourite footballer always remains, Bruno Coutinho. His identity revolves around the two goals he scored against East Bengal in 1997. I was in first year of college during that time. I still remember, I was free-lancing for a magazine, where on Saturdays, they used to carry football stories.
I thought I'll try and get an interview of Bruno. He was the star during those days, everybody wanted to write about him. Therefore, I tried my luck and called him. He answered and I introduced myself and told him that I wanted to interview him, didn't mention it was for a magazine but told him it was for Herald. He agreed and asked to meet. Also said that he wasn't sure of his schedule, he had to go to the secretariat and meet the CM and after that we can meet.
I was waiting for him outside the secretariat, exactly next to his car, still remember his blue colour Maruti 800. He comes out and then I got the interview done sitting in the car itself. So, you can just imagine, a first-year student interviewing a top player, one of the best during that time. I was so much in awe because he agreed to speak to a college student and that episode is so close to my heart that even if Bruno does something bad to me today, I'll be okay with that because he had agreed for an interview with a college student. It was truly surreal.
From thereon, interaction with football players has been so easy, I've never had any bad interactions with any player. Have spoken to so many of them over the years. Right from Bhaichung Bhutia who was the star during NFL days to Sunil Chhetri now, I've not had any problem.
But before I could work with TOI, my interaction with players was limited only to Goa, because we mainly covered only the clubs that were active here. Therefore, after having joined TOI, my outlook was completely changed, because then I had to look at nationally. So in the last 10 years I've covered much more than I did previously with Herald where I spent 8-9 years.
A lot of them think covering Indian Football is a waste of time, in fact a lot of them have told me that if I had spent the same amount of time, energy and effort in writing on cricket, maybe I would have gone much beyond.
But today, I can tell everyone this, what I got with covering football, I wouldn't have got it covering any other sport. Football is such a simple and beautiful game; you get attracted to it. I was working with the late Noel da Lima Leitao on a project when I was a year or two into the profession. He told me one very important thing, he said, 'if not for football, I would have struggled to get a job' and I completely agree. Because writing is the only thing I've known, I've never done anything else. Since 10th standard, I've been writing for junior Herald, kids' magazines etc. And possibly like Noel said, if not for football, I would have struggled, maybe done something else but don't think I would have been the same person as I am today.
I see Indian football progressing quite a lot, from the opportunities that we had when we started off in 99' to now ISL coming in, I-League teams being everywhere. Also, so much money involved in the game as well. So, anybody who's having second thoughts of moving ahead in the direction of Indian football reporting, I think they just have to look at me. I've survived for the last 20 years and I've been very happy and I'll continue doing this for the next 20 years too, just because I don't want to do anything else."
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