Bengaluru, Sep 24 Panama’s growth as a notable football nation came on the back of an intense jostling with baseball for space in public consciousness, eventually resulting in them appearing in two FIFA events in 2018 and 2026.
Thomas Christiansen, Panama’s longest-serving football coach since 2020, has seen that battle from close quarters, and thinks that India can take a cue from that.
Christiansen understands that cricket is the No. 1 sport in India, but football can find relevance and space in the country with calculated steps.
“I know that you have to deal with a social situation, because cricket here is the number one sport. We had it some years ago in Panama, as it was baseball focused, and this is one of the things you have to fight against to get football on the high level,” Christiansen said on the eve of the FIFA friendly against India here.
The 53-year-old, however, has noted that India, currently 138th in FIFA rankings, have made some improvements over the years.
“I have also seen that the team has improved a lot in the last years, and this is because your own domestic league has improved, you get players from abroad to raise the level.
“I just met Ryan Williams, and said hello to him, and I have seen him when I was coaching Leeds. He’s one of the players that when we analysed India, showed that they have a good level,” he said.
Williams, the Australia-born forward, whose mother hails from Mumbai, gave up the citizenship of the country of his birth in order to represent India.
As a budding player, Williams had joined the Portsmouth academy in England and has the experience of turning out for Fulham, Barnsley, Rotherham United, and Oxford United across League One, Two and Championship.
Christiansen felt that the opportunity to face three top quality teams in Panama, Brazil and Uruguay in two weeks’ time will help India gain some valuable inputs about the global standards.
“The most important is to improve in all senses, the league has to be better, the facilities have to be better, to give the players the best condition to improve, and to get good coaches to show the players what they need. One of the things that you’re doing well now is that you’re facing three teams in this FIFA window, who are participating in the World Cup.
“It gives you this experience to see where you are, and where you have to go for the level of expectation, if you want to reach a World Cup. So, I think it’s the ambition and the hard work that you need to put in, if you want to reach a World Cup,” he noted.
The Central American team’s midfielder Carlos Harvey has seen Lionel Messi, who plays for Inter Miami in Major Soccer League (MLS), and thinks that India also needs to bring in some top players to spike the game’s popularity in the country.
“Well, football in the United States is growing, and it is advancing little by little, with the arrival of some players like Lionel Messi, Casemiro, and now (Robert) Lewandowski too.
“The teams are gaining strength, and they are bringing the experience they have gained abroad, they have brought it here to the league, and that makes the league more visible, and now the level is going up.
“You need to do such things and and now you have to use these games (FIFA friendlies), to improve and also to attract this interest in football,” said Harvey, who plays for MLS side Minnesota FC.
These urgings, hopefully, will fill the right ears.
(PTI News)
