Elite League: Top 10 emerging talents from the 2019-20 season
The youth league has been the breeding ground for promising young players for some years now.
The Elite League is the top level of youth football in India. It is contested between the U-18 sides of I-League and Indian Super League (ISL) clubs and various other teams.
Over the past few years, the competition has produced several talented stars who have gone on to perform at the top level for various I-League and ISL sides. The 2019-20 Elite League season was no exception and although the competition had to be suspended midway through due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are quite sure that these starlets are here to stay.
" We went so late, that we weren't able to make that jump in our careers. Any player who goes at 15 or 16 doesn't need talent, only needs hard work and mentality " - Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
We spent so much money on U17 world cuppers, who have decided to settle down in isl bench and start earning monthly salary.. Thankfully Sanjeev Stalin is there....
They must go and learn there instead of trying to earn here so soon... Also not sure what they are going to learn here in a 4 month football season with 18 matches....
The Youth Coaches (Bibiano, Panda) must instill a dream in them at U16 level... If they have hunger and determination, someone will take them there....
I believe this guy Amarjeet Mishra who plays in 3rd tier Portugal will achieve great heights.... He decided to go there and toil... He does not have much support, but he is fighting it out there....
Ishan pandita father says he has offers from Segunda Division clubs in Spain... Stimac must call them to the squad atleast so that they will serve as motivation for the other players, instead of calling up bench players of isl which sets a bad precedent...
No idea about the U-dream programme as of now, with their twitter handle obsolete... Ayusha Adikari, Akash Mishra have come back.. It is not clear whether it will continue...
Not sure whether the 3 sudeva boys who went to play in Tercera Division, Spain got gametime or not.... Hope AIFF permit Sudeva, U-Mumba and FCbengalur United to play in ileague this time....
I completely understand the thought process. It would make better sense if we understand the whole player/system developmental life cycle. If you compare this to cricket you would be able to see the below picture ... But the fact is we are still in the very early stages in football life as such. So there are going to be lot of mistakes made - like U17s chosing ISL bench over European lower leagues. Slowly in the coming years the same U17 boys would start doing things differently than the current ones by going to Europe. That learning process takes time, every five years you will see a minor shift in every aspect of the game and that is how the progress is going to be made, slow but sure. That is how the knowledge is gathered and passed on down to next set of players. We are on the right track - we need to be more patient, key is to organize more and more matches and tournaments are youth level U15 on wards, any state team should play 35+ games a year. If you observe current U16 boys are much better prepared than the last set of U16s. All the mistakes and new things learned in 2018 is corrected and updated to 2020 U16 team. Give it four more years - that is 2024 U16 team will be ultra skilled. So once you understand the formula for success, it takes another 1 or 2 cycles to start producing results from ground up. Everything should start at U15-U16-U17-U18-U19-U20 then to senior team. Even if you keep 2 years per age group - as most the U15 players gradually move up the chain - it take 4 to 6 years to start producing quality, technical players to reach the national team, and then they need 2-3 years to develop and get chances and be ready for producing results at international level. So we are talking about 10 years min - to see a huge difference at national level. But that progress would be seen gradually from lower age group moving up and each batch is better than the previous ones. Of course the association should have pretty good coaches, infrastructure and funding etc to keep this cycle going continuously to generate critical mass of good quality players like Belgium or Germany for that matter. One good thing is - the process has already started at U15/16 level under Bibiano -- we need U18 coach to do a little better job so the gap is reduced in quality before they graduate to national team.
@thebeautifulgame Very good to see slowly new talent is spotted and groomed at youth level. I would love to see every state having a 15 team league for each age group start from U12. Meaning (15*20) = 300 players from each state in playing 30-35+ games a year. As they progress through - by the time they are U15/16 - they already have plenty of coaching, skills and matches under their belt. By now 300 * 15 (states), would have started producing 4500 players of which high skilled players say 5% = 225 technically skilled boys with sufficient game time for Bibiona to pick from. Then the whole life cycle starts. More specialized coaching and regular competition and exposure to foreign clubs etc fliter down this number into say 25 players ready for seniro level clubs and on to national team selection. So youth level organized leages and number of matches with enough state level teams is the key - and local and state federations have the key part to play to produce this environment for the talent to develop. Hope it happens in the near future.
It needs to start from School.. Central/State government should add sports in curriculum. Grades should be awarded for sports , need to mandate to choose atleast on event (like Football, Volleyball, T.T , Athletics etc).. and this needs to have direct impact on overall grade..
else we would need to win something big atleast at youth like U-16/U-19 Asian Cup to see the difference..This will generate interest among youth..
until then , we need to wait at-least 2 decades to find even a striker like Omar Al Somah (Syria)
I agree with your idea of starting things from school. Even if you give grades for sports - most of it would be based on theory or recreation level activity at that level. Even if you introduce one sport course every year, at schools the quality of training and development will only be marginal, at the maximum schools can produce state level players.
Elite players are developed by advanced full time academies with specialized coaches with modern methods and equipment. We are talking about an elite level in Asia - you definitely need a robust, club culture and high level of youth level competition in the form of progressive leagues for each age groups, which I think is there in INDIA and improving steadily. Right now what they need is to have full calendar of 30-35 matches/season .We do not need 2 decades to develop couple of decent strikers. India currently has enough youth leagues and teams playing at state/district level. We would find couple of decent striker in the next few years - if you take U16 AFC2018 boys as base - in 4-6 years by 2023-2024 India would have decent enough of few strikers who could score goals at AFC Qualifiers/championship level. It is my opinion that - by the time next round of AFC Qualifiers/WC Qualifiers start, we should have few decent strikers who do not miss easy chances. Our team would be more organized and building from back with possession passed football. I just hope we would be expecting our senior team to be like our current U16 boys team, by the next cycle of qualifiers.
@eastbengalpride = Even after 20 years we will struggle to beat Bangladesh at home.
Could you please explain a bit more on why you feel this way? The reasons behind your opinion?
Currently how many strikes do India have to play at AFC level and score consistently? Pretty much zero. What I am saying is - if all the age group leagues/teams play 30-35 matches a season + all outside tournaments, by 2025 INDIA should have 4 to 5 decent strikers/backup - who could score in AFC Qualifiers and Championship level matches. Do not expect them to be like top 50 FIFA ranked team strikers. But they will surely be much better than what we have now, My opinion comes from the sheer volume of youth development in academies, tournaments and skills being developed at Age group level. There is no magic for this, high level training and matches will automatically produce these types of strikers. Right now the youth development is like a breading ground - as it gets more and more experience and goes through refinement process, it would produce much better quality of players in coming years.
Comments
Elite League: Top 10 emerging talents from the 2019-20 season
The youth league has been the breeding ground for promising young players for some years now.
The Elite League is the top level of youth football in India. It is contested between the U-18 sides of I-League and Indian Super League (ISL) clubs and various other teams.
Over the past few years, the competition has produced several talented stars who have gone on to perform at the top level for various I-League and ISL sides. The 2019-20 Elite League season was no exception and although the competition had to be suspended midway through due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we are quite sure that these starlets are here to stay.
https://khelnow.com/football/hero-elite-league-top-10-emerging-talents
We spent so much money on U17 world cuppers, who have decided to settle down in isl bench and start earning monthly salary.. Thankfully Sanjeev Stalin is there....
They must go and learn there instead of trying to earn here so soon... Also not sure what they are going to learn here in a 4 month football season with 18 matches....
The Youth Coaches (Bibiano, Panda) must instill a dream in them at U16 level... If they have hunger and determination, someone will take them there....
I believe this guy Amarjeet Mishra who plays in 3rd tier Portugal will achieve great heights.... He decided to go there and toil... He does not have much support, but he is fighting it out there....
Ishan pandita father says he has offers from Segunda Division clubs in Spain... Stimac must call them to the squad atleast so that they will serve as motivation for the other players, instead of calling up bench players of isl which sets a bad precedent...
No idea about the U-dream programme as of now, with their twitter handle obsolete... Ayusha Adikari, Akash Mishra have come back.. It is not clear whether it will continue...
Not sure whether the 3 sudeva boys who went to play in Tercera Division, Spain got gametime or not.... Hope AIFF permit Sudeva, U-Mumba and FCbengalur United to play in ileague this time....
https://www.espn.in/football/bengaluru-fc/story/4107776/make-foreign-pit-stop-before-dreaming-of-manchester-united-or-real-madrid-sandhu
Probably he will be playing in reserves/Portuguese Cup as C.D.Aves have 2 regular Left backs.
C.D.Aves is in last position with 13 points from 25 games. Hope they avoid relegation.
I completely understand the thought process. It would make better sense if we understand the whole player/system developmental life cycle. If you compare this to cricket you would be able to see the below picture ...
But the fact is we are still in the very early stages in football life as such. So there are going to be lot of mistakes made - like U17s chosing ISL bench over European lower leagues. Slowly in the coming years the same U17 boys would start doing things differently than the current ones by going to Europe. That learning process takes time, every five years you will see a minor shift in every aspect of the game and that is how the progress is going to be made, slow but sure. That is how the knowledge is gathered and passed on down to next set of players. We are on the right track - we need to be more patient, key is to organize more and more matches and tournaments are youth level U15 on wards, any state team should play 35+ games a year. If you observe current U16 boys are much better prepared than the last set of U16s. All the mistakes and new things learned in 2018 is corrected and updated to 2020 U16 team. Give it four more years - that is 2024 U16 team will be ultra skilled. So once you understand the formula for success, it takes another 1 or 2 cycles to start producing results from ground up. Everything should start at U15-U16-U17-U18-U19-U20 then to senior team. Even if you keep 2 years per age group - as most the U15 players gradually move up the chain - it take 4 to 6 years to start producing quality, technical players to reach the national team, and then they need 2-3 years to develop and get chances and be ready for producing results at international level. So we are talking about 10 years min - to see a huge difference at national level. But that progress would be seen gradually from lower age group moving up and each batch is better than the previous ones. Of course the association should have pretty good coaches, infrastructure and funding etc to keep this cycle going continuously to generate critical mass of good quality players like Belgium or Germany for that matter. One good thing is - the process has already started at U15/16 level under Bibiano -- we need U18 coach to do a little better job so the gap is reduced in quality before they graduate to national team.
Very good to see slowly new talent is spotted and groomed at youth level. I would love to see every state having a 15 team league for each age group start from U12. Meaning (15*20) = 300 players from each state in playing 30-35+ games a year. As they progress through - by the time they are U15/16 - they already have plenty of coaching, skills and matches under their belt. By now 300 * 15 (states), would have started producing 4500 players of which high skilled players say 5% = 225 technically skilled boys with sufficient game time for Bibiona to pick from. Then the whole life cycle starts. More specialized coaching and regular competition and exposure to foreign clubs etc fliter down this number into say 25 players ready for seniro level clubs and on to national team selection. So youth level organized leages and number of matches with enough state level teams is the key - and local and state federations have the key part to play to produce this environment for the talent to develop. Hope it happens in the near future.
It needs to start from School.. Central/State government should add sports in curriculum. Grades should be awarded for sports , need to mandate to choose atleast on event (like Football, Volleyball, T.T , Athletics etc).. and this needs to have direct impact on overall grade..
else we would need to win something big atleast at youth like U-16/U-19 Asian Cup to see the difference..This will generate interest among youth..
until then , we need to wait at-least 2 decades to find even a striker like Omar Al Somah (Syria)
@Nagendra -
I agree with your idea of starting things from school. Even if you give grades for sports - most of it would be based on theory or recreation level activity at that level. Even if you introduce one sport course every year, at schools the quality of training and development will only be marginal, at the maximum schools can produce state level players.
Elite players are developed by advanced full time academies with specialized coaches with modern methods and equipment. We are talking about an elite level in Asia - you definitely need a robust, club culture and high level of youth level competition in the form of progressive leagues for each age groups, which I think is there in INDIA and improving steadily. Right now what they need is to have full calendar of 30-35 matches/season .We do not need 2 decades to develop couple of decent strikers. India currently has enough youth leagues and teams playing at state/district level. We would find couple of decent striker in the next few years - if you take U16 AFC2018 boys as base - in 4-6 years by 2023-2024 India would have decent enough of few strikers who could score goals at AFC Qualifiers/championship level. It is my opinion that - by the time next round of AFC Qualifiers/WC Qualifiers start, we should have few decent strikers who do not miss easy chances. Our team would be more organized and building from back with possession passed football. I just hope we would be expecting our senior team to be like our current U16 boys team, by the next cycle of qualifiers.
@eastbengalpride = Even after 20 years we will struggle to beat Bangladesh at home.
Could you please explain a bit more on why you feel this way? The reasons behind your opinion?
Currently how many strikes do India have to play at AFC level and score consistently? Pretty much zero. What I am saying is - if all the age group leagues/teams play 30-35 matches a season + all outside tournaments, by 2025 INDIA should have 4 to 5 decent strikers/backup - who could score in AFC Qualifiers and Championship level matches. Do not expect them to be like top 50 FIFA ranked team strikers. But they will surely be much better than what we have now, My opinion comes from the sheer volume of youth development in academies, tournaments and skills being developed at Age group level. There is no magic for this, high level training and matches will automatically produce these types of strikers. Right now the youth development is like a breading ground - as it gets more and more experience and goes through refinement process, it would produce much better quality of players in coming years.