The point Jhingan was making in his interview to HT before Thursday’s 2027 Asian Cup qualifier was that it did not matter. Teams in Asia are full of players not born in the country they are representing, making them markedly different from even two years ago. “We played Hong Kong and it hardly looked like the Hong Kong we played in Kolkata in 2022. This time, they had players speaking in Spanish,” said Jhingan.

“Not playing by same rules”

In June, soon after he had stepped down as India head coach, Manolo Marquez had spoken about this. India played Syria who had 14 naturalised players including Pablo Sabagg who was born in Barranquilla, Colombia. Apparently, Sabagg’s grandfather had a Syrian connection, Marquez told me. And then you play Hong Kong who have players born in Brazil, Cameroon, England, Germany and Spain, he said. “It felt like you were not playing by the same rules.”

“I don’t know when exactly but India will have to change because if not, step by step, we will be going down,” said Marquez echoing what Igor Stimac and Stephen Constantine had said before him.

The FC Goa head coach said naturalising players should not be at the expense of long-term development, of the kind that has taken Uzbekistan to the 2026 World Cup finals. Investment in infrastructure, age-specific teams and working towards a longer season should continue, he said.

I know it is easier said than done and prior attempts have gone nowhere (Sunny Dhaliwal, Michael Chopra). I have read reports of Syria’s experience with German-born Mahmoud Dahoud not going to plan. And I get it that India does not allow dual citizenship. But neither does Singapore and Japan and players not born Singaporean or Japanese have played for both national teams.

The Cape Verde way

Cape Verde Island being one win away from a berth in the 2026 World Cup makes me think AIFF should focus more on this.

This west African country with a population of 6 lakh has used talent from its diaspora. “The football association devised new strategies around identifying and recruiting talent throughout the large Cape Verdean communities,” said U.S.-based agent Tony Araujo, who was born on the islands and worked closely with the team over decades, according to a Reuters report. “The talent identification and global recruitment process started to pay off huge dividends around 2013, when they qualified for their first (Africa) Cup of Nations final.”

With players born in Portugal, France and Ireland, Cape Verde can win against Eswatini at home next week and make it to the 48-team finals. That’s some shift from their first World Cup qualifying campaign in 1990 when they were 182nd in the FIFA rankings.

On Wednesday, down 1-3 away to Libya they forced a 3-3 draw. It took Cape Verde to 20 points, two more than Cameroon and on top of the group. Read Ireland-born defender Roberto Lopes’s interview here.

From head coach Patrick Kluivert to players in the squad, there is a strong Dutch connection in the Indonesia national team. They lost 2-3 to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday but the dream to qualify for their first World Cup as an independent country is still alive.

Born in Loughborough, Hamza Choudhury has lifted Bangladesh, South Korea have German-born Jens Castrop, Qatar forward Almoez Ali was born in Khartoum, midfielders Song Ui-young and Kyoga Nakamura were South Korean and Japanese respectively before becoming part of the Singapore national team and if Malaysia’s campaign in the Asian Cup qualifiers in unravelling it is because of the consequences of a FIFA ban on seven naturalised players.

Last May, following sustained efforts from AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, the union sports ministry said it could consider allowing Persons of Indian Origin in football and tennis. The player will need an Indian passport and that means AIFF still has a lot of ground to cover. But, facing a governance crisisit could be a long while before that happens.

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