Why ISL teams prefer foreign strikers and why that is detrimental to the Indian team

More despairingly, the only Indian striker to start matchday was Vinith Venkatesh from Bengaluru FC. He didn’t score.

It’s another week gone, spotlighting the disconnect between what ISL teams prefer and what the national team needs.

Why foreign strikers thrive

Last year Bengaluru FC, a club that usually stays in the top positions of the Indian Super League but were going through tough times on the pitch, finished the season tenth out of twelve clubs. It was the worst position they had suffered in the league. Changes and chops and cuts followed and Bengaluru FC did what most successful ISL clubs do to stay at the top of a shallow pool – purchase a striker that’s acclimatised to the league.

If one takes a look across the landscape of Indian football’s top domestic tier, especially over the last five years, a pattern emerges. The best teams are usually the ones that are able to get their hands on a group of strikers that have been oscillating across teams.

Take the case of Roy Krishna. When the Fiji striker joined ATK in the 2019 season, he immediately catapulted the former Kolkata club into one of the best teams in the league. Coming in from the A-League, Krishna was immediately head and shoulders above other teams and their players. His low centre of gravity, coupled with his rapid acceleration instantly saw him catapult himself to the status of best striker in the league.

Since 2019, Krishna has played for ATK and then Mohun Bagan, Bengaluru FC and now Odisha FC. His stint at Bengaluru was the only aberration where he only managed six goals in 22 appearances. At Odisha, his goal tally stands at 16 in 31 games.

When the Fiji striker Roy Krishna joined ATK in the 2019 season, he immediately catapulted the former Kolkata club into one of the best teams in the league. (ISL)

Argentine striker Jorge Peryra Diaz has played for Kerala Blasters on loan, then with Mumbai City FC and now is with Bengaluru FC. At Mumbai, Diaz scored 21 goals in 37 games. Once proven as a successful striker in the ISL, short term stints at different clubs come knocking. Greg Stewart has played successive seasons with Jamshedpur FC, Mumbai City FC and now is with Mohun Bagan.

Indians hard done by

This reliance on proven foreign strikers in the league has one major detriment – a lack of striking options for the national team. In a league where you could count Indian strikers playing as the striker on one hand, the chance to grow simply doesn’t materialise.

Take the case of Odisha FC striker Rahim Ali. Ali was one of the players who were hastily boarded onto a plane to go to Hangzhou to represent the Indian football team at the Asian Games. This ISL season, he started as the second striker in the opening game in a 4-4-2 formation. Since then it’s either been substitute appearances or being shunted to the right wing – a similar situation to what Manvir Singh, an Indian international footballer faces at Mohun Bagan, who routinely plays in the right wing back position for club.

East Bengal’s Dimitrios Diamantakos was considered one of the signings of the ISL, and the consensus was that the club could be in and around the top at the end of the season. But their poor start has seen a grand total of four goals being scored in six games. But the Greek striker continues to be played ahead of 22-year-old Indian striker David Lalhlansanga, who last season with Mohammedan SC, scored eleven goals in 25 games as a starting striker.

As an Indian striker it isn’t just the lack of time but that of opportunity that hinders growth and directly affects the national team. None of these clubs have the threat of relegation and yet in eleven years, a top flight Indian football club has not been able to develop a single striker for the national team. It continues to choose goals and wins over developing young Indian marksmen.

There are now a new crop of foreign strikers that are being employed by the league. Currently Morocco’s 31-year-old Alaaeddine Ajaraie is the top scorer in the ISL in his first ever season for NorthEast United FC with seven goals in six games. Albanian striker Armando Sadiku is next with six goals.

In fact after six games, the only Indian striker in the top 10 of the ISL scoring charts is a familiar name. Plays for Bengaluru, wears the No 11 jersey and has retired from the national team.