Sunil Chhetri: Noida’s young footballers are quite inquisitive

Footballer Sunil Chhetri is gearing up for the start of the second part of the Indian footballing season, as India’s premier league – the I-League – begins in a couple of weeks. On his recent visit to Delhi, as we talked to the Indian striker, Noida was one of the topics discussed. Sunil had visited the academy of former Indian football coach Anadi Barua at the Noida Stadium earlier this year and says that he was quite impressed by the kids he met there.He tells us, "Barua sir was my coach in my junior league days and his brother is the manager of the Bengaluru FC, where I currently play. So when he invited me to talk to the young footballers in Noida, I had to go. Meeting those kids was amazing, albeit a little chaotic. They were excited and I was very happy to meet all of them. They were inquisitive and asked intelligent, pertinent questions. It’s always nice to interact with kids."
NT's story on Sunil's visit in July
But this wasn’t the first time the former Indian football captain had visited Noida. Sunil says his tryst with Noida dates back to over a decade when he used to travel to Film City. "Noida is different now, almost unrecognisable. I remember long back, I used to go to the office of a sports TV channel in Film City, and there were just fields all around. Now, it looks like a different city altogether. With the malls, the buildings and the swanky roads, it’s completely changed for the better," he says.
While Sunil has words of praise for the footballing facilities in Noida, he says the city needs to take the next step and have a professional football club here soon. He says, "Robin (Singh, who plays for the Indian team) is from Noida, and to have an international footballer from your town is always good because the kids have someone to look up to. Every city needs a footballing hero and not just that, it would be great to see a professional club in Noida soon. Without a club in the city, there is a limit to what one can achieve. If a kid wants to play in the big leagues, he has to move out. There is no I-League team in Delhi as well, so kids have to go to centres like Calcutta or Goa, and not everybody wants to send their kid that far."