Stimac proposal: Only Indians for centre-forward and attacking midfield at clubs

With the conviction of one who played every minute of Croatia’s campaign in the knockout phase of the 1998 World Cup, represented his country for 12 years and coached the national team, Igor Stimac said India should consider a bar on foreign strikers and attacking midfielders.

Clubs not being allowed to sign imports in a particular position to groom local talent is not unusual in Asia. The Chinese Super League did not allow foreign goalkeepers. In South Korea’s K-League, no foreigner (a North Korean does not count) can be between the sticks since 1999.

“That is the only way,” said Stimac, head coach of India senior men’s national team. “We need to think about opening centre-forward and attacking midfield positions to Indian players,” he said, speaking from Bhubaneswar where India are holding a training camp.

Stimac was speaking to Hindustan Times ahead of next month’s tournaments, the four-nation Hero Inter-continental Cup in Bhubaneswar (June 9-18) and the SAFF Championships in Bengaluru (June 21-July 4).

“I need to stop answering the question of what after Sunil Chhetri. (We) need to put the question to stakeholders in our organisation,” he said. Stimac said India would have to replace Chhetri, 38, as a team. “But it would have been so much better to have the option to pick two out of 10-12 centre-forwards who are playing regularly.”

No Indian has topped the scorers’ list in nine seasons of the Indian Super League (ISL). In 16 iterations of the I-League, it has happened twice: in 2013-14 when Chhetri (14 goals) shared the spot with foreigners Cornell Glen and Darryl Duffy and in 2020-21 when Bidyashagar Singh scored 12 goals for TRAU.

ISL and I-League clubs’ preferring foreign strikers and attacking midfielders has led to the national team facing a severe shortage of attacking options. Strikers such as Manvir Singh, who is injured and will miss both competitions, have also been played out of position by clubs.

Singh, Ishan Pandita, Vikram Pratap Singh, Rahim Ali should be played regularly in their natural positions, “to advance their game”, said Stimac. “If they are given a chance to play centre-forward by their clubs, they will score the same amount of goals as foreign players.” Chhetri became a top striker because “he learnt how to score; he learnt how defenders would try to handle him. He didn’t grow up as a winger.”

Asked whether playing in another position is adding to their skillset, Stimac said that could happen only after the players “perfectly understand” what needs to be done in their natural position. “We are far away from modern football.”

If clubs must invest in foreign players, it should be on full backs, said Stimac. “At the moment, full backs are the weakest link in Indian football. So, let’s make sure in future each club would buy one (foreign) full back from whom Indians can learn.”

Should India make the final of both tournaments they would play nine games in 26 days. That’s one more than what they played in 2022. As they would have gone from a very short season to one that has eaten into their holidays, Stimac said he would need to rotate players to keep them fresh and injury-free.

With India scheduled to play the King’s Cup (September 7-10), Stimac said he might not take charge of the qualifiers of the 2024 Asian under-23 championships, where in Thursday’s draw India were grouped with China, UAE and Maldives, because that is between September 6-12. India returning to the Merdeka Cup (October 14-17) means preparing for that tournament could make him unavailable for the Asian Games (Sept 23-Oct. 8), said Stimac.

The Merdeka Cup could be India’s last competition before the Asian Cup in January. ISL will pause giving the national team a minimum of two weeks to prepare for the Asian Cup, which begins on January 12 (India open against Australia on January 13), said Shaji Prabhakaran, secretary-general of the All India Football Federation. “If I don’t get more than two weeks, we will focus on the first game in the Asian Cup,” said Stimac. Playing a game in that time would mean losing three training sessions to prepare for the friendly, he said.