Football is by no measure India's most popular sport. Cricket rules the roost on the subcontinent and every young Indian boy or girl with an interest in sport wants to become the next Mahendra Singh Dhoni or Yuvraj Singh rather than follow in the footsteps of such paupers as Messi, Rooney or Henry.
No wonder, as India's cricketers are among the best rewarded in world sport or even the highest paid when endorsements and sponsorships are taken in to acount - above such mega-earners as David Beckham in soccer, Alex Rodriguez in baseball and Tiger Woods in golf.
Part of the problem is that so far no Indian soccer player has made it on the world stage, though a couple of players have tried their luck in the lower reaches of world football. Baichung Bhutia, for example, played for Bury in the 1999-2000 season without setting the world alight.
Football's heartland in India is in Bengal, especially Kalkotta (Calcutta) and this area provides the majority of the national team, nicknamed the "Bhangra Boys", who failed to qualify for this year's Asian Cup and languish in a lowly 145th position in the Fifa World Rankings.
India have won the 50-over and 20-over cricket world cups, it will be a while before they can hope to replicate that success in football, but the game is beginning to expand at the grass-roots level, and who knows, maybe in a few years India might at least begin to make its mark in Asian football.
Indian Football
No wonder, as India's cricketers are among the best rewarded in world sport or even the highest paid when endorsements and sponsorships are taken in to acount - above such mega-earners as David Beckham in soccer, Alex Rodriguez in baseball and Tiger Woods in golf.
Part of the problem is that so far no Indian soccer player has made it on the world stage, though a couple of players have tried their luck in the lower reaches of world football. Baichung Bhutia, for example, played for Bury in the 1999-2000 season without setting the world alight.
Football's heartland in India is in Bengal, especially Kalkotta (Calcutta) and this area provides the majority of the national team, nicknamed the "Bhangra Boys", who failed to qualify for this year's Asian Cup and languish in a lowly 145th position in the Fifa World Rankings.
India have won the 50-over and 20-over cricket world cups, it will be a while before they can hope to replicate that success in football, but the game is beginning to expand at the grass-roots level, and who knows, maybe in a few years India might at least begin to make its mark in Asian football.
Indian Football