"At U15 Level, Indian Footballers Are As Good As European": Mohun Bagan Legend's Stunning Revelation
Indian football players are as good as their European counterparts at the youth level, opines Mohun Bagan legend Jose Ramirez Barreto. So where does the problem lie?
'At the Under-15 stage, the level of upcoming Indian footballers and European footballers are the same.' These are the words of Jose Ramirez Barreto, arguably the greatest striker to have played in India in the 21st century. Words that come as a shock when you google India's FIFA ranking and find out that the number says '142'. Indeed, the Indian national football team has collapsed to their lowest ranking in over a decade. But if the talent is there at the grassroots level, where does the problem lie?
"It's a total organisational problem," says Barreto, in a candid interaction with NDTV on the sidelines of the Athlead Ingolstadt Juba Sangha academy launch in Delhi-NCR.
"Players have nothing to do. I understand expectations are high on the Indian players, but I feel it's all about structures. Players are nothing but a selling product. There are a lot of stages and structures you have to build up to sell your product. That's what we are lacking these days," says Barreto, a Mohun Bagan legend and one of the all-time top scorers of Indian football's most storied club.
An alarm bell has been ringing around professional football in India for a while. At a time when the present and future of the Indian Super League (ISL) - the country's top division - is still unknown, Barreto's words only make the alarm louder.
"There are plans for 2030, 2050. But now, one of your main leagues has stopped. Football cannot stop. It has exposed that things aren't going in the right direction. It shows it might be time to change things," he adds.
"I've travelled with kids for youth football to England. We played the likes of Arsenal, Leicester City, the Manchester clubs. At the U15 level, the Indian kids and the European kids - exactly the same! The gap comes after that," reveals Barreto.
As 2025 draws to a close, the feeling around Indian football continues to be disappointment. For a few years now, Indian football appears to be in a vicious loop. But Barreto still has words of motivation for these rising stars.
"You can't focus on the negative aspects. Your passion has to be bigger. Even in Brazil, I faced many negatives. I didn't have the structures or the coaches. I just had myself."
India