Indian football wants to muscle its way to the top flight, tongue firmly in cheek. Actually, the AIFF’s technical director, youth development Colin Toal said that the Federation was looking for taller and stronger players to make India’s presence felt at international level.

Toal feels India has a pretty good potential and the players have skill, but they lack the physique. “India has quality players and they are technically good enough. But they lack physique including height as compared to their counterparts outside the country,” said Toal who was in Jamshedpur to take part in the AIFF’s Under-13 football festival.

“We are focusing on talented footballers with good height and strong physique,” he added.

According to him, the Indian football team requires about 40 per cent such players, especially for certain positions like defence and upfront.

He described his experience in Indian football as “positive” but was strongly against comparing India with other countries.

“Competition is a lot stiffer in football in comparison to cricket. Football is being played in over 180 countries whereas cricket is basically restricted to eight-nine nations. India has made good progress in last one year or so and is now in 140s in Fifa rankings,” Toal observed.

“We have won the Nehru Cup and the AFC Challenge Cup, lost in the SAFF Cup final. In fact, that was our only loss in last 15 months. We are definitely making progress. Now the target is to get into the top 10 in Asia,” he said.

He, however, refused to set any timeframe as to when India would qualify for the World Cup finals. National coach Bob Houghton said that 2018 World Cup should be the realistic target for India.

Referring to the Under-16 and Under-19 teams, Toal said that 72 boys would be selected from both age-groups based on their performance in national-level tournaments. Among them 30 best players would be short-listed from each age-group who will undergo three-week training for the Asian Championship that will be held later this year. Both camps will be held at Goa with the Under-19 boys attending it from February 1 and the Under-16 boys from April 1.

Emphasising the need for more international matches, Toal said that the teams would play a few international friendlies in the lead-up to the Asian Championship. The senior team is presently in Hong Kong for a one-off tie. The juniors will also go there soon.

The technical director, who has 32 years of coaching experience in 13 countries, hailed the AIFF for organising the Under-13 football festival. “This is the right age to spot and nurture talent,” he said.