Why can't India produce footballers like it does cricketers?

On April 28, Vaibhav Suryavanshi made headlines around the world. Just 14, the cricketer became the youngest player to score 100 runs, a landmark milestone in the sport, in the Indian Premier League (IPL). Amazingly, as the league, founded in 2008, attracts the best players in the sport, he is also the second fastest ever to reach a century, taking just 35 balls. While his age is unusual, Indian cricket produces many young talents.

For soccer fans in the country of 1.4 billion, the situation is a little different. Just weeks prior to the teenager's achievement in Jaipur which has pundits asking when he will go on to represent India's cricket team, the head coach of the soccer team had to recall Sunil Chhetri, a 40-year-old striker, from international retirement to come and play. While Chhetri has scored 95 international goals — of those still playing only Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi have scored more — it was a decision that provoked a lot of debate in the media and among fans.

A Need for Heroes

"Sunil was recalled as we have a lack of strikers who can score goals," Arunava Chaudhuri , former COO of Indian Super League (ISL) club Mumbai City, told DW. "We have an issue about talent at this moment. Players coming through is a problem, with some settling into the system only around the age of 25."

India is the premier power in the world of cricket. In football, however, it is far from the top. The national team broke into the top 100 in FIFA's rankings in 2023 for the first time since 2018, but has since dropped to 127. India lost all three games at the Asian Cup in 2024, a year that ended winless. Such pressures may explain why Chhetri was recalled.

Compared to cricket, there are a lack of young players coming through in the beautiful game.

"There are no role models in football, they are all outside India," Shaji Prabhakaran, former General Secretary at the All India Football Federation (AIFF) told DW. "Cricket continues to find stars as the majority of the youth are trying to emulate the icons."

A New Pathway

As well as plentiful heroes, there is a pathway for cricketers to get to the top of the game. In football, that has yet to be developed. "The structure is weak, and the system does not exist where talent is identified at the right time and they get nurtured," said Prahhakaran. "Cricket is well-structured and they have more opportunities to find and grow their talent and give opportunities to youth."

Tom Byer is regarded as one of the most influential voices in youth development in Asian football and was hired by the Chinese Ministry of Education in 2013 to help bring the game to the country's massive population. He sees India as in a similar position. 

"India has 180 million children under the age of seven," Byer told DW. "Yet there's no national strategy focused on this foundational stage. That's both the blind spot and the opportunity. If India truly wants to develop in football, it must cultivate a football culture—and that begins at home, not with foreign coaches or imported systems."

Leagues apart

It is not just about the national teams at one end, and children at the other, the domestic leagues have a huge role to play in developing young talent. In India, there is a huge difference between the respective competitions. The IPL is one of the top five most lucrative domestic sporting leagues in the world. In December 2024, US investment bank Houlihan Lokey stated that its business valuation was €14.5 billion ($16 billion). 

The ISL started out with eight teams in 2014 and became the top tier of Indian football in 2022. It started with great publicity and famous foreign players like Alessandro Del Piero, David Trezeguet and David James, and was initially a standalone tournament lasting just a few weeks. The big names have gone, but there are now 13 teams and a season that runs for seven months. Despite that growth, there is still a long way to go.

"The senior teams in the ISL play 30 games, half what globally competitive players play and the youth side is less than that," said Prabhakaran. "There is a need for more games."

Owen Coyle is a former English Premier League head coach and is now in charge of ISL club Chennaiyin.

"We need big stakeholders and money to be invested in the grassroots," he said in December. "Instead of getting those kids at 18-19, what if we explore their talents when they are 11? If we do, we can give the national team far better opportunities to develop."

Money Talks

Football clubs in India do not, however, have the revenue streams that the IPL teams benefit from. In 2022, the cricket league sold broadcast rights for over €5 billion. Figures for the ISL's equivalent sale in 2023 were not disclosed but the reserve price was reportedly around €59 million.

"Cricket is commercially successful and the IPL value is going up," said Prabhakaran.  In Asia's top football league, in Japan, the clubs have played a huge part in identifying and developing talent but a lack of financial resources is an issue in India. 

"ISL Clubs are not able to invest in player development as the commercial side of sport is very weak," he added. "They are not going all out to look at youth talent.  We don't have the money to invest."

A football superstar

There is still hope for the world's most populous country to find success in the world's most popular sport, and always a chance that football could find its own Vaibhav Suryavanshi.

"If a 14-year-old is identified as a big talent, not by India, but by the global giants saying 'this is where we have found a diamond' this would be bigger than this 14-year-old in cricket," said Prabhakaran.

"Because the whole global attention and Indian attention would shift and that would have a huge impact…this is where it will explode."