Need to create international interest for Indian players, asserts Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

The next generation of the Blue Tigers might benefit from international exposure.

Indian national football team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu emphasized the importance of providing Indian players with international exposure. The Indian Super League in association with Reliance Foundation has nurtured and cultivated future Indian stars in recent seasons.

While reflecting on recent squad additions and the new faces, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu praised the ISL standouts like Farukh Choudhry, Vibin Mohanan, and Jitin MS, ahead of the international friendly against Malaysia. He acknowledged the value of introducing these emerging talents and getting them accustomed to the national team environment.

The 32-year-old believes new faces will bring fresh motivation to the squad and ensure a competitive bunch of players. During a recent press conference ahead of the encounter against Malaysia, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu spoke candidly about the future development of Indian football.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu emphasizes need for overseas exposure

The Blues goalkeeper has himself experienced the European style of football and highlighted the benefits of playing abroad. He also advised younger players to seize opportunities that may emerge in stronger leagues in Asia.

While talking about youth development, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu opined, “It’s my personal biased opinion. I think players should go outside. They should be at least aiming to go outside and play. But it’s not as easy as it sounds. It’s very easy for us to say that, oh yeah, why are players not going outside this and that? It’s all about also having interest from outside for players from India.”

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu believes that while it’s tough for players to get interest from overseas clubs, those U-20 should strongly consider trials and contracts abroad.

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Reliance Foundation Youth Sports is paving the way

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu was full of praise for youth initiatives like the Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RFYS) and the Reliance Foundation Development League. Under the Reliance banner, many young ISL players like Vinith Venkatesh, Sivasakthi Narayanan and Vibin Mohanan are unique success stories. While lauding the accomplishments of these players, he urged for a more extensive network of academies across India.

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu elucidated, “We need to create interest of Indian players outside as well and then have at a bigger scale because that’s what the size of our country is. Having multiple institutions is something that we have to do and also create interest from outside so that people can come in and look at talent, then take five Sivasakthi to Ajax.”

According to Sandhu, the long-term goal of the association should be not only to cultivate talent at home but also to create avenues for these players to gain recognition from clubs overseas.

Expanding youth systems and generating international interest should ensure that Indian football achieves sustainable growth and make some noise on the global stage.

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