It is one of the great riddles of world sport: why India has never become a footballing power despite having a vast talent pool and a connection with the game dating to the British Raj.

While Indians have excelled at cricket – introduced at the same time – and won the cricket World Cup in 1983, their football team is ranked 145 in the world, between Surinam and Antigua.

But 118 years after its first football club was founded, India is determined to correct the anomaly by recruiting a new generation of international stars with the help of Manchester United.

A coaching team from Manchester United Soccer Schools, which runs training programmes around the world, is in India for the first time this week to test the skills of 5,500 youngsters. Led by Brian McClair, the former United striker who runs its youth academy, the team will select 12 children between 10 and 16 years old on Friday after a week of trials in the southwestern coastal state of Goa.

They will then travel to Britain, along with two coaches from Goa, for a week of training paid for by Airtel, the Indian telecommunications group, which is sponsoring the programme.

The KICK OFF programme, backed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), marks the first time that a foreign club has been involved directly in talent-spotting in India.

The federation hopes to introduce similar programmes nationwide, using foreign expertise and private capital to help to develop Indian football, which although still dwarfed by cricket has nonetheless become more popular among the young in the last decade.

“We have a vision for the future of football in India and this . . . will only help to accelerate our progress on the world stage,” said Alberto Colaco, AIFF general secretary.

The programme also shows how European clubs such as Manchester United are trying to gain a foothold in India as a potentially huge source of fans, sponsors and, one day, players.

“It’s clear to see that with such a huge population in India the potential for football to grow is enormous, and we are delighted to be involved in the further development of the game here,” said Sir Alex Ferguson, the Manchester United manager. “Hopefully we can play a part in the vision of accelerating this development of young players in India.”

Goa was chosen because football is particularly popular in the former Portuguese enclave, which is also one of India’s most prosperous and cosmopolitan states. Savio Messias, secretary of the Goa Football Association, said that more than 5,500 children from the state had joined the programme in the Nehru Stadium.

Each is going through a series of dribbling and ball control tests designed by the youth academy, whose alumni include David Beckham, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes.

The data is still being processed, but initial results have been impressive, according to Dale Hobson, director of international development for Manchester United Soccer Schools.

“What we see in the children is very encouraging – some of them are potentially very good,” he said. “This is only a pilot scheme, but just think, India is 145th in the world and has 1.1 billion people. There’s a disconnect there – it doesn’t make sense.”

Some blame India’s climate and widespread malnutrition, which hinders young players’s physical development. Others blame corruption and chronic inefficiency within the AIFF, which is dominated by politicians.

Mr Hobson said that television was probably the decisive factor. “It’s only when the Premiership started being broadcast into China in the early 1990s that it caught alight,” he said. “Now you have Chinese players in the Premiership and Chinese sponsors. India may be the same. If an Indian lad got picked up by a European club, the game could take off here.”

Sleeping giant

— India’s first football club, the Mohun Bagan Athletic Club, was set up in 1889

— In 1911 it became the first Indian team to lift the Indian Football Association (IFA) Shield, previously won only by British teams

— India qualified for the 1950 World Cup finals in Brazil, but could not appear as the team still played barefoot

— India won the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games gold medals in football

— India won the Nehru Cup – an international tournament organised by the All India Football Federation – for the first time in August 2007, beating Syria 1-0

— An estimated 42 million Indians watched the English Premiership last season

Source: Times archive

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