Indian footballers will kick off 2024 in style by competing in the Asian Cup and as part of the preparation, captain Sunil Chhetri hopes they get to play at least one friendly against a top side.
The 38-year-old veteran is scheduled to play his last Asian Cup in Doha, which will commence on January 12 and conclude on February 10.
Chhetri also discussed head coach Igor Stimac's proposal of a 4-week camp ahead of the Asian Cup to prepare for different challenges from their Asian compatriots.
During a virtual media interaction, he said, "We are going to face Australia, Uzbekistan and Syria in the Asian Cup (group matches), that is why Stimac (as well as goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu) have spoken about long camps. We need it and I really hope we get it."
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"When you go to the national camp, there are injuries to players and they come with different mental levels from their respective clubs. You need to take care of all these, and to do that you need more time," he continued.
The top brass of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) had conveyed to Stimac that his demand of a lengthy camp time would be difficult to meet as the domestic clubs might not agree to release the players for such a duration.
"Eventually, how many days we get (for national camp) depends on the talks (among the stakeholders) but I really hope to get as many days as possible," said Chhetri.
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India has been on a good run of late, winning the tri-nation international tournament in Manipur in March, and later, clinching the Intercontinental Cup in June and more recently, the SAFF Championship. Ahead of the SAFF Championship, the players had attended a camp from mid-May.
Chhetri, who was named the most valuable player at the SAFF Championship, spoke about the importance of playing international friendlies.
"If we get at least two or three important international friendly games before the Asian Cup, including at least one against a country ranked in top six or seven in Asia, that will give us a good picture of ourselves and will make us more ready.
"If I throw the name, it could be against Iran, Japan or Saudi Arabia. If we don't play against Japan, Iran or South Korea, we will not know the level of Australia (India's strongest opponents in the Asian Cup).
"To prepare for these big matches against the top teams, we need a camp of four weeks. If we get five days of national camp we will not be ready for these big matches. To face Australia in the Asian Cup, we will need at least a couple of levels higher than what we are having in ISL, and for that we need longer preparation time," Chhetri concluded.
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(With inputs from PTI)
