India international Amarjit Singh Kiyam thanked his national team head coach Igor Stimac for supporting and believing in him when he suffered an injury prior to the 2019-20 Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) season. While speaking to AIFF TV during an Instagram live session, Amarjit revealed what Stimac told him after he had suffered the injury.

“It was a very unfortunate moment for me (the injury). When the head coach came to the ground and said to me 'Amarjit, be strong. You will come back stronger', all my fears vanished. He even gave me his number and told me to call him if I needed anything. That gave me more of a belief to make a comeback in the team,” the Jamshedpur FC midfielder said.

“He sees senior and junior players equally. He likes anyone who gives their 100 per cent. The transition of play - from attack to defence and defence to attack - is a very important factor for him. As I play as a defensive midfielder, I have to be quick to supply the ball to the nearest player and I try my best to apply whatever the coach likes,” Amarjit added.

Amarjit captained the U-17 national team which participated in the 2017 FIFA World Cup hosted by India. He has since gone on to make his debut for the senior national team and Amarjit credited a lot of his development to the All India Football Federation’s foreign exposure tours.

“We were very lucky. The amount of exposure that we got, maybe no other national team got. We went to Brazil, South Africa, Germany, Spain, Norway, Italy and many countries and played against strong teams,” he said. “I got the opportunity to play in the Hero ISL and the Indian national team. This was possible only after all those exposure trips, the (U-17) World Cup and playing in the Hero I-League. So, it was very beneficial for us.”

While pointing at the BRICS tournament hosted by India in 2016 as an example, Amarjit said, “When we played against Brazil in the BRICS tournament, they had Vinicius Junior in their squad. Now he is at Real Madrid. So now we think that we played against such a top player. We got to learn a lot from them. I would like to thank AIFF for all the exposure.”

“The AIFF took care of us well so that the players may contribute something to the national team in the future. We got to learn a lot from our exposure tours. Some of the players whom we played against, when we see them playing in top teams, now we think how we played against this player,” the 19-year-old added.