The appointment of Khalid Jamil as the head coach of the Indian national football team has seen return of an Indian coach at the helm of the National team after more than a decade.
The former Jamshedpur FC coach will have CAFA Nations Cup as his first international assignment and he believes that it will be a good opportunity to play against quality opponents.
“This will be India’s first-ever participation in the CAFA Nations Cup, and it will be a good opportunity for us to play against stronger and quality opponents like Tajikistan and Iran in CAFA Nations Cup. This will definitely be beneficial for us to prepare for AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. There is absolutely no excuse for us, as we have enough time to prepare for it. We may be treating these as preparatory games, but this is serious business for us,” he said.
Important to remain united
After announcing his probables, the 48-year-old has started his first national camp in Bengaluru and while some players are yet to join, he is happy with the training sessions so far.
“We started the camp with some players still not available, but we’ve got the players we need to begin our preparations. We had a good first training session yesterday (Saturday), but there’s a lot to improve on,” he said.
With the responsibility of turning the poor form of Blue Tigers in recent time, Jamil wants to take one step at a time and keep his team united.
“We must do the simple things first and go step by step. We are treating these matches as friendly games, but I want to take players who are fit. When I say fit, I mean, the players who will play must be 100 per cent fit,” said Jamil.
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“The important thing is that we remain united as a team. For the national interest, we would like to request co-operation from clubs to release players on time, to ensure their adequate participation during the preparatory camp,” he added further.
He also believes that he needs some time to adjust with the team given the different nature of club and country coaching. “The players also need time to adjust to me. My doors are always open to everybody. Whoever is doing well will be selected,” said Jamil.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
