More academies, better players: Forlan’s prescription for India

Diego Forlan believes India’s football development must start at the grassroots, with greater investment in academies and a stronger domestic league to help the country’s talented young players reach their potential.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner acknowledged that cricket remains India’s dominant sport, but said the country has plenty of young footballers who could benefit from a stronger development structure.

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“Your main sport is cricket, so it’s different. Football has been here for many years, of course, but it’s not the main sport. But you have a lot of young talented players,” Forlan said on the eve of India’s match against Uruguay today [8pm, Bangladesh Time].

Forlan stressed that the key to India’s long-term progress is building a strong football system from the grassroots. He believes more academies would give young players better opportunities to train, develop and eventually strengthen the country’s professional league.

“You need to build from the roots — academies, young players, kids to start playing a lot. If you build more academies, the league gets stronger and stronger. You will achieve getting more players and getting better players, that’s for sure,” he said.

The former Uruguay star also highlighted the importance of India regularly facing high-quality international opposition. Matches against teams such as Brazil and Uruguay, he said, can expose Indian players to a higher level of competition and contribute to their development.

“I think this kind of game, playing against Brazil, Uruguay, and also having a strong league, would improve the development of young players. In the near future, India could be playing important and crucial games,” Forlan said.

India have already faced strong opposition during their recent run of international fixtures. They drew 1-1 with Panama before taking on Brazil, where they showed some attacking promise early on but eventually suffered a 4-0 defeat.

Forlan’s message, however, goes beyond the results of individual matches. For him, India’s bigger challenge is creating a sustainable pathway for young footballers — from grassroots participation to academies, the domestic league and eventually the national team.

Uruguay, meanwhile, arrived in Kolkata on September 30 and have been using the days before the match to adapt to the local conditions. Forlan said the humidity presented a challenge after the team’s recent tour of East Asia.

“We know it’s not going to be easy. Playing here, the weather is humid. You also need to adapt. That’s why all these days that we came here were good for us to adapt. The weather is different from Japan and Korea, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game,” he said.

Before travelling to India, Uruguay played in Japan and South Korea, losing 3-1 to Japan before beating South Korea 4-1.

For India, the Uruguay fixture offers another opportunity to test themselves against elite opposition.