For long football in India remained popular only in certain pockets, namely Kerala, Goa, West Bengal and parts of northeast India.
The introduction of the Indian Super League in 2014 and the emergence of clubs like Aizawl FC and Minerva Punjab FC have begun to provide the game a wider horizon.
The country, however, is yet to have a structured grassroots programme and is lagging behind in identifying and nurturing talent.
The arrival of Bundesliga giant Borussia Dortmund could help address the issue. Dortmund is widely known for its youth development programme — which has seen the emergence of many promising stars such as Marco Reus, Mario Gotze and Nuri Sahin — and looks to apply the same approach in India and is already in talks with the All India Football Federation.
“We are looking at India. We met the AIFF general secretary (Kushal Das) two weeks ago in Dusseldorf,” revealed Dortmund chief marketing officer Carsten Cramer during a select media interaction at the club's office here.
“We will think of a partnership with an ISL club, but we have to look for an authentic and natural connection. We will discuss it with our main sponsors, Puma and Evonik, who have some connections in India.
“I’ll be in India in early June and will visit Mumbai and Bengaluru to collect more information,” he said.
European clubs have already ventured down this path, but the partnerships have failed to stand the test of time. Leicester City's tie-up with East Bengal didn't take off and Feyenoord and Atletico de Madrid's relationships with Delhi Dynamos (one season) and Atletico de Kolkata (three seasons) were cut short.
Bottom-to-top approach
“Ours is always a bottom-up approach. It’s more of a grassroots start than rushing into the country, playing some friendlies with the professionals and saying we have established a presence. That’s not the Dortmund way.
“It will be easy for us to increase awareness in India by hiring a talented Indian player for the youth or second team, but we are not a marketing club, we are a football club,” said Cramer.
“We will take it step by step. It might take time, but I’m sure this is the right way. We don’t have to be the first ones. Even if 10 others (clubs) are there, there will be space for our story because our story is not a copy-and-paste of the others,” he said.
(The writer was in Germany as part of the Bundesliga Experience with Star Sports Select)
