India can achieve anything if they put their mind to it: Tottenham Hotspur legend Ledley King on the football prospects in the country
Over the past few years, India has been identified as a hotbed for European clubs to swoop in and nurture and unearth the incredible raw footballing talent at the country's disposal.
Despite the fastracking that such collaborations with international clubs have brought about, the question that continues to irk may is how soon will the day come when Indian players will be able to rub shoulders with footballing heavyweights across the globe.
Well, in an exclusive interview with Sportskeeda, Tottenham Hotspur legend Ledley King elucidated on the progression of footballing growth in the country. The ambassador of the north London club, who was in Mumbai for a match screening, averred:
"It takes time. There's been plenty of top countries that have had to take many steps back and start again, so to speak. Because they kind of reached the limit and they weren't achieving their goals. England have had to do that, and Germany had to do that years ago. I'm not sure about Brazil and Argentina. But to have a look down again at how their infrastructure is with the young kids and how they can develop the best possible players."
Citing the precedent of reinventing the country's footballing system set by global powerhouses, King underlined that India will have to follow a similar trajectory.
"So India will be no different. If they have top-quality coaches then it's up to the players to put the work in and it can take 15 to 20 years. But eventually, we'll see a progression of improvement to a point where India will be there," he added.
King, who was a one-club man throughout his professional career, has traveled to India with former Tottenham player and World Cup winner Osvaldo Ardiles. The duo furthermore spoke about the scope of Indian football during the conversation with Sportskeeda.
Here are the excerpts from Sportskeeda's exclusive interaction with former Tottenham Hotspur players Ledley King and Osvaldo Ardiles where they delve into Indian football, their session with Reliance Foundation Youth Sports, and more.
Question: How has your experience been in India so far and what plans do you have for Indian football?
Ledley King: My experience has been fantastic. For me personally, it's my first time in India. The reception we've had has been fantastic but we did have an opportunity to see our fanbase on video. We've had an opportunity to see that and to see how excited they are for us to be coming over and excited we are to come over and share some great experiences with them. So yeah, it's been fantastic.
In terms of the football side of things, we want to try to help India at a grassroots level. We had an opportunity to go out onto the pitch yesterday and work with some of the young kids, our coaches that we have over here will hopefully educate some of the coaches here in India as well to help develop the game because a country the size of India if they put their mind to it they can achieve anything and be one of the best at it.
So it will take time but we're hopefully going to work together to make it a success.
Q: You had a session with the Reliance Foundation and OSCAR Foundation. How was the session overall and how does it align with Premier League's values?
Ledley King: So it was good, the standard was good. The kids were great. I have to speak about the way they behaved. It was exceptional. They listened, they smiled, and they were a pleasure to work with. So yeah, myself and Ozzy had a lot of fun and hopefully the kids did.
For us, it was an opportunity to see what the level is like, what the enthusiasm is like, and hopefully for the coaches to watch and maybe take away one or two things that they can keep doing with the kids to help improve the game.
Osvaldo Ardiles: India is in the first steps going towards where India wants to be in terms of football. They're talking about England, talking about Argentina, Brazil, etc.
So it's very, very important to do right now the first step and then the next step and the next step as well. So if we can somehow we can try to help India to do the first step, I think we can do that.
Q: What values do you think Indian youth footballers need to inculcate so that they can go on and rub shoulders with the bigger players?
Ardiles: The values are exactly the same as any value in England, Argentina, Holland, and so on.
It's exactly the same value. You know very well that whatever you want to do in life you have to work incredibly, incredibly hard. It doesn't matter how good you are, how good you are in a certain manner, but you have to work very, very, very hard.
To do that it's very, very important to cut the best pitches as well. And this is what we saw happening here a lot here as well. Somebody would call you to help the coaches here, for the coaches to help the children.
Ledley King: I think first of all the passion needs to be there. And if the passion is there, as we've seen it, it is, then it comes the hard work. You have to put in hard work and dedicate hours to whatever you're doing.
And of course, then you can, in time, you can be one of the best for sure.
Q: What activities are planned for your visit to Bangalore and what do you aim to achieve from that?
Ledley: We're actually going to watch an Indian Super League game. So we're looking forward to seeing that. It's great for us to get an opportunity to see the standard of the men's game over here. That will give us a better understanding of what we're looking at in terms of developing the young players to reach the top.