The Hero Indian Super League (ISL) recently held a Youth Workshop at Vashi, Navi Mumbai. Besides all the current ISL teams, the workshop was also attended by representatives from Dutch club Nijmegen Eendracht Combinatie B.V. (NEC), who were by and large impressed with the proceedings. NEC are also the club that signed 13-year-old Kshitij Kumar to their youth academy. The Delhi youngster, who was part of the second-year batch of Reliance Foundation Young Champs (RFYC), impressed during his trials with the club.

In an exclusive conversation with indiansuperleague.com, Iddo Roscher, the head of the NEC youth academy, shared his thoughts on the workshop, the status of Indian football, and of course their new signing Kshitij.

Quizzed on how he got to know about Kshitij, Roscher explained that joining hands with the ISL and RFYC helped their cause.

“First of all, we had the cooperation of the ISL, and the Young Champs,” he shared. “I think we can all profit from this move, which is essential for the next step in the development of a player like Kshitij. It is very important for players like him to come to an academy in Europe so that they can develop further.”Roscher also shed light on how Kshitij ended up signing for them.

“The decision to send Kshitij was taken by both,” he revealed. “First of all, he has a state internship for a few weeks, but he was selected by the people of RYFC because of his football capacities and because of his character. It’s quite a step to go to Europe, so it’s not enough to (just) be a good football player, but also to have character. So that’s the main reason.”

He also reckoned that Indian football was slowly but surely becoming noticeable across Europe and there are renowned clubs searching for talent in the subcontinent.

“I think the interest is growing in European clubs and English clubs. Because of the traditional bond between India and England, maybe English clubs have more interest than other European countries, but I think they see potential and also the development of Indian football.”

And of course, he rightly pointed out, there is a huge scope of marketing football in India.

“I think there are a lot of clubs, especially in England, who see commercial possibilities,” Roscher revealed. “Of course, there a lot of people in India, and once football becomes bigger in India, it becomes a big market for them. Apart from that, India’s football is developing; it’s interesting to see the type of footballers that are being developed.”

How does he differentiate between the academies in Netherlands and the ones in India?

“We have a big advantage with grassroots (initiatives) in the Netherlands. Football is the biggest sport there and almost all kids play football in an organised way. So, every little village has a football club and the distances are very short between these clubs. Hence, there are a lot of competitions and every boy can play at his own level.”

He also added that the youngsters start playing in these competitions when they are as young as six years old.

As we neared the end of the interview, he revealed the impact of the ISL across Europe.

“I think the interest in Indian football and academies has just started, so it is difficult for Europe to see what is happening here. I think the idea is really developing as to how important the grassroots are, and how important it is to have a structure based on the grassroots where you have talent pools, academies, and top training. It’s very interesting and good to see the rate at which it is developing because of the ISL,” he stated.