Indian football coach Igor Stimac has admitted the mediocre quality of ISL. He further explained the limitations it has brought to the Indian national team.
“ISL is just comfort football in its present form,” the coach said during an interaction here on Tuesday. “It gives a good salary to the players and they are in a comfortable space. In the ISL, when a player receives a pass, he has enough time to think about his next move. But in international football, you don’t get that time. You have to make an instant decision and move on.”
“When I was coming to India as the coach, many people told me I was lucky as I have 1.25 billion options to choose from. But when I came here, I realised I have 10 teams to choose from and a pool of 50 odd Indian players, who are mostly goalkeepers, defenders or defensive midfielders.”
“Who (almost all ISL teams are taken by foreigners) had nowhere else to go and who are here for the salary.”
“As a national coach, I don’t have a ready pool of players. I have to pick players from these ISL teams and I have to take what is offered to me.”
“Expectations are very high, but options are limited, so is the base. It’s a challenge I would like to take up. Some players from the Indian Arrows and U-17 project are very talented and have huge potential. But then, if they get used to high salary and the comfort that comes with it, half of them might disappear.”
