Abhishek Yadav, a familiar name in Indian football circles as a striker with over 50 international caps and a two-time Nehru Cup winner, is currently in Dubai overseeing the launch of the All India Football Federation's global scouting programme.
Since assuming charge as Chief Operating Officer and Director of scouting for the Indian Under-17 team, this is Yadav's attempt at taking the process of scouting to foreign shores, in an attempt to create a larger pool of players for India's AFC under-16 championships this September and the FIFA Under-17 World Cup a year later.
Yadav spoke to ESPN about scouting for the Indian team, his attempts at taking it global and the plans in place to strengthen the existing youth setup.
Q: What can you tell us about how the scouting process for the national team began?
The scouting programme was actually started in June 2015, but it had just been low-profile till now. It was (Indian national team coach) Stephen Constantine's idea and he asked me if I could support him in this. The obvious priority was the 2017 FIFA Under-17 World Cup. In the last eight months, our ideas have gathered momentum, and we have had to overcome different challenges.
Scouting at the state level is the most basic part. It was a challenge to begin with, because our project wasn't recognised or properly structured.
Q: How did you go about setting up the process of scouting?
The most important part of scouting is to understand the requirement of the team. It cannot just be about what you like and what you think will be good for the team. For instance, if the team needs a left-sided midfielder, I can't just show them a forward who is good with his head.
The first step was to organise a workshop with all national coaches. We got them together to explain the importance of scouting for the national team. During this workshop, we also got some of the coaches of the Sports Authority of India (SAI) because we realised we couldn't do it by ourselves. Injeti Srinivas, the Director-General of SAI, has been very supportive, and we have discovered that he's very pro-football. In fact, SAI has started their own scouting cell, and that is great news, because there must be a synergy when two organisations are working towards the same goal.
Q: How was the response to this scouting programme?
(Smiles) I must have already seen some 20,000 players across the length and breadth of India. When we identify a player from a particular state, it does wonders to encourage the state association. For instance, one of our best (Under-16) players is Aniket Jadhav (a forward who was selected by World Cup winner Paul Breitner to train in Germany), who hails from Kolhapur, Maharashtra.
Q: When did it occur to you to take scouting for the Indian team to countries outside India?
When we started off, we realised we had made a positive start in India. Then we thought to ourselves, why not look at Indian kids living abroad? Having played for India in foreign countries, I have met several players of Indian origin who would have been happy to have played for India. We don't want these kids to grow up and think, "aaj main India mein hota toh India ke liye khel sakta tha (if I had been living in India, I might have turned out for the national team)." The idea, at the moment, is to reach out to valid Indian passport-holders globally, born after 2000.
Q: Is there a plan to look at naturalising players of Indian origin, the way the senior team did with Arata Izumi (Japanese-born midfielder who became the first naturalised India international in an international friendly in February 2013)?
It will not be possible to get Overseas Citizens of India (OCI) or Persons of Indian Origin (PIO) at this stage, but that's only because of the Indian government's rules and regulations. I did have a boy living in Germany who reached out to me and his parents and he were keen to give up his German passport and take up an Indian one, but the rules require you to have lived in India continuously for 365 days before you can switch nationality. That is not possible with this Under-16 team, because the players themselves train outside India for a majority of the year. So we can't have an Arata for the Under-16 team just yet.
Q: Personally, what has been the best part about being associated with this project?
I think I have an added advantage as I have been a player myself. I know the challenges that one can face when wanting to make it to the national team. Not enough people are aware of the procedure to get to play for a state team, forget the national side. This is just a pilot project. In Dubai this week, we are just trying to tell people about what we plan to do. But we would need this to go viral and more people around the world to come to know.
Q: You are in Dubai for this weekend, but where is the global scouting headed to next?
I'm working on a portal where children can upload videos. Obviously we will have to set some guidelines; for instance, the video must be from a competitive game, and must not be more than six months old. We have planned this portal to be operational by the month end. The idea is that if the AIFF and SAI are not able to reach out to you, you can reach out to us. I know from personal experience that a player has to overcome several hurdles before they can make it to the Indian team; we need to make it easier for them to realise that dream.