In September 2004, the Japan football team arrived in India to play a World Cup qualifier. No one would have blamed India fans had they shown no interest, for Japan had thrashed India's finest 7-0 in Saitama. But a frenzied crowd of 120,000 awaited them at the Salt Lake Stadium in Calcutta.

It was immaterial that Japan won 4-0 because the vast majority had gone to pay homage to the the visiting team's coach. Outside Brazil, Artur Antunes Coimbra - Zico to millions - had not experienced such adulation. Two months ago Bayern Munich played at the same venue, with Oliver Kahn, the former Germany goalkeeper, bringing down the curtain on a storied career that encompassed a Champions League triumph and a World Cup final. He was stunned by the appreciation from the capacity crowd.

Those who like to portray India as a one-sport nation of cricket lovers could not be more wrong. Despite the national football team not having qualified for the final stages of the Asian Cup since 1984 - urban legend has it that they turned down a chance to play in the 1950 World Cup because of the players' reluctance to wear boots, although lack of finance is more plausible - the passion for the sport has not dimmed in hotbeds such as Calcutta, Goa and Kerala.

With the ESPN-Star network screening up to five Barclays Premier League matches live every weekend - cable operators charge about £3 a month - millions of young Indians, especially in the big cities, are as enraptured by the deeds of Cristiano Ronaldo, Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard as by Sachin Tendulkar and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

The talent is there at junior level, too, and although Baichung Bhutia, the finest Indian player of his generation, rarely got off the bench during a three-year stay at Bury from 1999, few would be surprised if Manchester United unearthed the next Mohammad Salim, the dazzling winger who caused a stir at Celtic in the 1930s, or another Chuni Goswami, the Mohun Bagan star coveted by Tottenham Hotspur in the 1960s.