Indian Football Team Coach Igor Stimac, today, named his list of 25 for the Indian campaign in the upcoming Hero Intercontinental Cup scheduled to start at the EKA Arena, Ahmedabad from Sunday.
The tournament has four teams participating: Tajikistan, Syria, DPR Korea and hosts India. The tournament format will have all four teams playing each other once with the top two making to the final. India were the champions of the last edition of the tournament and will start their campaign with Tajikistan on July 7.
Speaking about the camp, the players were picked from, the Indian Coach said, “all players worked really hard at the preparatory camp in Mumbai.”
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Further speaking about the players and the kind of plans executed during the camp, he added, “We are satisfied with the execution of work for the past ten days. The players worked really hard, and we are all very enthusiastic about our upcoming games.”
In the 25, Narender Gahlot, the Indian Arrows defender was named and so was Mandar Rao Desai. The final list will have only 23 prior to the kick-off of the tournament.
The Indian Coach has the repute of supporting Croatia to qualify for the FIFA World Cup Brazil 2014. He expects this tournament to be a step stone towards planning for Qatar 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers, which is slated to kick off this September.
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Continuing what he sees as the way for the Asian nation to realize their FIFA World Cup dream, he added, “Once again, I will use the upcoming games in the tournament to have a look at all the players in action. Each one of them deserve the chance”.
Earlier, based on their domestic and international performances, Coach Igor Stimac had called in 35 players to the national camp which also included Vishal Kaith, Nishu Kumar, Salam Ranjan Singh, Sarthak Golui, Anwar Ali, Raynier Fernandes, Michael Soosairaj, Nikhil Poojary, Jackiechand Singh, and Balwant Singh, Ashique Kuruniyan. These 10 players couldn’t make to the 25 player set up that Stimac has been banking on for upcoming tournament.
Men in Blue will reach Ahmedabad on July 6.
25 Member Indian Football Team: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh (all goalkeepers); Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Sandesh Jhingan, Adil Khan, Anas Edathodika, Narender Gahlot, Subhasish Bose, Jerry Lalrinzuala (all defenders); Udanta Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Pronay Halder, Rowllin Borges, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul, Amarjit Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Mandar Rao Desai (all midfielders); and Jobby Justin, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary, Manvir Singh (all forwards).