“You can’t compare Sunil Chhetri to Hamza. Sunil has done great things for India, but let’s be honest, Hamza is a Premier League player.”
From the time it was announced that India would be grouped with Bangladesh in the 2027 Asian Cup qualifiers, the buzz has largely revolved around one name – Hamza Choudhury.
The 27-year-old, a Leicester City academy product who played over 90 games for the former Premier League champions and is currently on loan at Sheffield Wednesday in the Championship, was born to a Grenadian father and a Bangladeshi mother and decided to take up a Bangladesh passport in 2024.
Usually, an India-Bangladesh football match is seen as a David-vs-Goliath contest (FIFA rankings: India 126, Bangladesh 185). But in reality, there isn’t much to choose between both teams on the pitch, even though India provides a better (still nowhere good) domestic environment to its players.
The inability to improve a poor domestic system has led to consistent calls for players of Indian origin (PIOs) to be allowed to play for the national team. All India Football Federation president Kalyan Chaubey had spoken in the past about creating a group to study the feasibility of including PIO footballers in the Indian team.
It’s a similar story for Bangladesh, who have brought in Choudhary because the country’s domestic ecosystem hasn’t seen much improvement. Now that the former England U21 international has arrived, so has the glare of the cameras and the inevitable national need to cast a long shadow. Mobbed at the Dhaka airport at the start of the week, Hamza was later compared to Lionel Messi by captain Jamal Bhuyan, who once played for Kolkata’s Mohammedan Sporting and is a known face in the Indian football circuit. The comparison to Sunil Chhetri made by him implied that India didn’t have the best player in the region.
When India had its press conference in Shillong on Monday, the first question put to coach Manolo Marquez was about Hamza as many journalists had turned up from Bangladesh for the game.
Story continues below this ad
India’s central defender Sandesh Jhingan during the practice session ahead of the Bangladesh game. (AIFF)
“Hamza, obviously, is a good player who was playing in the Premier League. I think it’s good for not just Bangladesh, but Asian football that such players are playing for the national team. I feel that the teammates will be very motivated to play with him,” the Spaniard said.
Tough assignment
In the past, many coaches have come to Indian shores and been bombarded with questions on Chhetri, his ever-rising goal tally and the comparisons with players in Europe, who are performing in far tougher environments and conditions.
Both teams take to the field on Tuesday for a crucial game in the context of qualifying for the continental showpiece. India may not lose to Bangladesh often but the two draws in their last three outings, including a crushing 1-1 result in the 2022 World Cup qualifiers, which started the end of Igor Stimac’s tenure as coach of the Indian team, points to the gap narrowing.
Bangladesh stopped its league so that coach Javier Cabrera had an entire month to train with his team. Marquez, on the other hand, got just 10 days to train with the squad, a large part of which usually goes in injury management and improving fitness levels.
Story continues below this ad
If India lose on Tuesday, they will only have themselves to blame. A relatively easy World Cup qualifying group was squandered. Failure to reach the 2027 AFC Asian Cup could bring with it yet another wave of recrimination for the national team.
Hamza or not, India needs goals from open play. The return of Chhetri brought India’s only in-form striker back into the fold, but it still doesn’t solve the issues plaguing the national team when it comes to scoring goals – an issue that persisted even before the 40-year-old’s retirement last year. In the friendly against Maldives, India scored three goals, but lost Brandon Fernandes, the best attacking midfielder in the country, to an ankle injury. The only bright spot that Marquez will carry into this game is the poor form Bangladesh have been in, losing three of their last five games, including one against Maldives.
