India doesn't rely only on Chhetri: Koevermans

National football chief coach Wim Koevermans today insisted that the team is not relying heavily on skipper Sunil Chhetri but said there has to be a “follow-up” of players.

“I am very happy Sunil is scoring a lot of goals, we have Robin Singh, we also have Balwant Singh from Churchill (Brothers) who is also high on the ranking. New players are coming to the front. Sunil will not play till 70 (years of age) so there needs to be a follow-up (of players). It’s not that we totally rely on Sunil, he is a great captain for the team. There has to be a follow-up for them to be as good as Sunil,” he told reporters.

He was here to oversee the ongoing AFC B License course at Cooperage Football stadium.

With the Asian Games scheduled to be held in September, the Dutchman said there would be exposure camps to prepare for the tournament.

“I saw the I-league games and saw some players in the recently concluded under 22 camp, so we have time till the end of April to see which players we can put on the list for the tournament (Asian Games). There will be a camp outside India. We have to play good quality opposition matches. We will start building a team in India and the we have an exposure trip and we come back to India and then a final exposure trip before the Asian Games start,” he said.

Asked about the quality of opponents, he said, “We always try to play teams ranked higher than India but that is not possible because of the AFC Cup being played as then the national team is not available or they have another programme. And then it is better to play rather than not play at all.”

India will host the U-17 World Cup in 2017 and asked about the preparations for the same, Koevermans said, “there has been a check up for the stadium. I am not directly involved in it. There will be reports on that as to what has to be improved. Everyone is very happy that there is World Cup Under-17 for the young kids who will be the stars of the future.”

“Whatever spin off and development to the run for 2017 should not stop after that. So we have a big event in 2017. It is really big tournament. We are the superstars of the future. So it is a magnet for football and it brings lot of kids towards football, so it should not stop after that,” he added.

PTI