New Delhi: Newly-appointed Indian football team coach Igor Stimac Friday said all players, including the talismanic Sunil Chhetri, are equal and will have to fight for their place.
Stimac, who was part of Croatia’s squad that finished third in the 1998 World Cup in France, is conducting a training camp for the national team probables in preparation for the King’s Cup in Thailand.
“We speak every day. I speak with all our players every day. That’s my approach. I need to do that. I need to get information from them,” Stimac said in his first press conference.
“Of course, Sunil (Chhetri) is very valuable to our team. He is a role model to these young players who are knocking on the door. He has played so many games, he is so experienced, and has scored so many goals. But as well as others, he needs to fight for a place in the team. We all start from zero. Football is like that. You don’t get anything for the past. You get paid for today’s job. As successful you are today, tomorrow you get your chance once again.”
With less than two weeks to go for Stimac’s first assignment, he said that he was concerned about the defence, and the lack of options, particularly at centre-back.
“Over the next few months, my job will be to find more competitors for the centre-back position, which we are short on right now,” Stimac said. The 37-man preliminary squad, which is undergoing a camp at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, will be pruned to 23, by the time the team leaves for Thailand on June 1. In the next few days I have to decide on 25-26 players from this squad who will be the most valuable for this competition (King’s Cup) and after that, the squad will be cut to 23.”
Stimac was quizzed on the level of research he had done on India before accepting the job. (PTI)
