New Delhi : The Indian men’s football team for the Asian Games, to be held this month in Hangzhou, China, has been announced. The Indian Football Federation (AIFF) announced the 18-member men’s team on Wednesday (September 13).
Only U-23 football teams will compete in the Asian Games, with only three players from senior national teams eligible to participate. When the 22-member Indian team was shortlisted on August 1, three senior players were also included. Among the senior players were Sandesh Jhingan, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sunil Chhetri, but now only Chhetri has been given a place.
There are 23 teams participating in the tournament, divided into six groups. Four teams are playing in each of the groups A, B, C, E and F, while three teams are playing in group D. The Indian men’s team has been placed in Group A along with hosts China, Bangladesh and Myanmar.
The Asian Games will be held this year from September 23 September to October 8 in Hangzhou, China. India has already won 2 gold medals in the Asian Games (1951 and 1962). The team also won a bronze medal in 1970.
Under the leadership of Croatian coach Igor Stimac, the national team once again entered the top 100 of the FIFA rankings by winning the SAFF championship.
The Indian men’s and women’s football teams received special permission from the Indian government to play in the Asian Games. The Indian team was not allowed to participate in the 2018 Asian Games. Sports Ministry rules state that only teams ranked in the top-8 in Asia are allowed to participate in the team competition. The last time the team participated was in the 2014 Asian Games.
Indian team for the Asian Games: Gurmeet Singh, Dheeraj Singh, Sumit Rathi, Narendra Gehlot, Amarjeet Singh Kiyam, Samuel James, Rahul KP, Abdul Rabih, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Bryce Miranda, Azfar Noorani, Rahim Ali, Vinci Barreto, Sunil Chhetri, Rohit Danu, Gurkeerat Singh, and Aniket Jadhav.
Indian Football Federation President Kalyan Choubey said that the Indian football season has been very busy this time. “ We had a busy schedule in a short time. There is a lot going on at the domestic and international level, both with the Indian national teams and with the clubs of ISL. The senior men’s national team has successfully played a number of matches and is looking forward to the Asian Games, followed by the Merdeka Cup, World Cup qualifiers and the AFC Asian Cup. He thanked the Indian Super League and FSDL clubs for releasing the players of the current team for the Asian Games.
The Indian football team recently made a splash by winning the SAFF Cup. In the Kings Cup, the team is in bad shape. In the semifinals, the team lost to Iraq in a penalty shootout. In the third-place match, the Indian team was defeated by Lebanon. What makes this special is that regular captain Sunil Chhetri is not in this team. Without him, the team is in bad shape.
The Indian team, which won the bronze medal four years ago, had to return empty-handed from this tournament this time. Earlier, in the semi-finals, India had to face defeat by Iraq 4-5 in the penalty shootout on controversial penalties. In this match, Manvir Singh and Lalianjuala Chhangte created many chances for India but many times the ball went over the bar and many times missed the target.
