Barefoot to Boots

On 14 February 2017, Union Sports Minister Vijay Goel tweeted an infographic under the ‘Transforming India’ programme. According to its stated mission, the government aims to reach 1.1 crore children and ‘make them play football on a regular basis’. It intends to ‘reach out to over thirty-seven cities and 12,000 schools across twenty-nine states’ and incentivize schools to encourage the game amongst students.1

Such efforts are laudable and there is a gradual awakening towards developing football talent in India. Middle-class interest in the game, primarily due to watching European football on satellite television, has been on the rise, which is reflected in the mushrooming of academies all over the country.