ALMOST FAMOUS

After beating Asian giants Saudi Arabia 3-0 and holders Iraq 2-2 during the Group C qualifying meet, the youngsters are already drawing comparisons with the golden batch of 1996.

It is not the first time that India have qualified for the main round of the AFC championship in recent years, but the feat becomes special since it has been achieved away from home against much stronger opposition.

India had made it to the main round on three previous occasions8212;1996, 2002 and 2004. While the first success came in Peshawar, the other two were achieved at home against a much weaker field.

It8217;s not only the change in appearance, but attitude that holds hope for the rejuvenation of the nation8217;s footballing fortunes. A bunch that has been woven together from across the country8212;unlike in the past where they were mainly sourced from the Tata Football Academy and Manipur.

There is passion, commitment three players in the team missed their class X exams to be part of the team, parental support and of course, an attitude to supplement their skill.

It would be too early to place that huge burden of expectation on this generation of Malsawmfela, Manandeep Singh, Lalrindika Ralte and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, but the All India Football Federation has done well to unearth some fine talent that carries promise for Indian football.

The big question is how the apex football body in the country manages their transition to the next level.

Grooming has never been the forte of the Indian soccer establishment, whether at the level of the national association or their state counterparts or clubs.

There are plenty of examples of quality talent going the wrong way in the absence of a grooming mechanism.

Take this flashback, for instance: An India U-17 team, while on an exposure trip to Germany, held the junior team of FC Cologne 3-3. That Cologne team boasted in its ranks the great young star Lukas Podolski, and the star of the night was a fleet-footed midfielder from Mizoram by the name Malswama. After drawing praise from all quarters, the talented midfielder got lost in the web of clubs in Kolkata and after five years of survival on the bench has landed with New Delhi Heroes.

The story of lanky defender Gourmangi Singh, another star from the batch, is no different. The Manipuri was forgotten on the bench of clubs in Kolkata and Goa, till his stature was noticed by Indian coach Bob Houghton as recently as the summer of 2007.

Another example is of eccentric but prodigious Bungo Singh, a part of the AFC U-20 All Star XI not many years ago. The talented midfielder has been in and out of the Indian team and could not even find a regular place in the Churchill Brothers8217; squad in the last National Football League.

Indian football is replete with such what-could-have-been-stories.

But the difference this time around is the presence of Irishman Colin Toal. The technical director of AIFF8217;s youth development wing was at the heart of a successful youth development module in the United States of America. And he has been a close ally of present chief national coach Bob Houghton in his previous stint as coach of China and Uzbekistan.

Hence, it8217;s a long-term plan for development of youth football, with Houghton and Toal working in tandem with a young generation of coaches like Sanjoy Sen, Narayan Menon, Tanumoy Bose, Thomas Joseph, Jude Tiofilo Barreto, and Mridul Kanti Banerjee.

8220;The process is now more streamlined, there is a direct line of hierarchy in the football set-up and a clear vision about the plan to go about,8221; said Pradeep Sarkar, manager of the senior Indian football team.

Shaji Prabhakran, the youth director at AIFF says: 8220;The channels of communication between the chief national coach Bob Houghton, Colin Toal and other coaches are pretty lucid and all are working towards creating a blueprint for nurturing and shaping the talent. The challenge is to ensure that there are no more cases of lost-in-transition.8221;