New Delhi: Indian Football for the past one month have been gripped by the news about Sunil Chettri and Jeje Lalpeklua’s Rangers FC trial, and a lot of speculation is making rounds as to what fate holds for them.
But Sunil the senior pro, however is disappointed and regret that he could not train with the first string team of the Rangers. “We hardly could get a chance to train with the first team as the day we reached they had a Scottish Premier League match. Then they had a friendly with Hamburg FC which we were supposed to play, but our Visa could not cleared and we missed out that opportunity as well,” rued Chhetri.
Chhetri snubbed the notion that the Indian players are not meant for overseas leagues and feels it is just a matter of one player to break the shackles and others would follow the suit. “In Japan and South Korea it happened like that. After Kazu Miura and Hidetoshi Nakata now Japan has several players in the European league,” added the star striker.
Chhetri understands the level of competition is quite high but remains optimistic about the Indian players. “It is indeed tough but I believe that Indian players have the potential to play in European leagues. The basics are the same and the only difference is in the training process,” added the star striker.
He also made it clear that he is not bothered about the air of uncertainty that looms over his transfer from Mohun Bagan to Rangers, does he make the cut.
“My agent Yogesh Joshee will handle this matter. I am not thinking about it. I have some contractual obligations to Mohun Bagan and need to abide by it,” added Chhetri.
Meanwhile Rob Baan, the technical director of Indian Football does not think that the striking duo of Jeje and Chhetri are yet ready to play for European clubs.
“Jeje and Sunil are best Indian Strikers and in an ideal situation scouts should have come to see how they play. The fact that they went to Scotland for the trial shows that they are not yet ready for top overseas clubs,” said Rob.
Samikshan Dutta Choudhury
Indian Sports News