By IANS
Kolkata : India’s football coach Bob Houghton now has the crown ‘Bob the Builder’ firmly on his head, and the country’s former soccer greats are waxing eloquent over the team’s maiden success in the Nehru Cup.
Prasun Mukherjee, a former Indian captain and country’s representative to the Asian Football Confederation’s technical committee, described the occasion as “historic and momentous”.
“Yesterday was an incredible day for Indian football. To win the Nehru Cup for the first time is simply great and to beat a team like Syria, which is much superior to us, is even greater. The boys have performed magic and all credit should go to Houghton and All India Football Federation (AIFF) president Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi,” he said.
“For the first time in many years we saw an Indian team looking confident and united,” he said.
“This should act as a fillip to greater glories and I sincerely believe that at last we can say that Indian football is rising up from its very long slumber,” he said.
Another great from the country and current Mohammedan Sporting coach, Shabbir Ali, said, “This is a great push forward for the Indian side. Hope we don’t sit on the laurels as this is the first of greater glories we can achieve.”
Legendary striker Chuni Goswami described the victory over Syria as a “great moment” in the chronicles of Indian soccer history.
“We are all proud at the way Bob Houghton’s boys played. My congratulations to Bhaichung Bhutia and his teammates. It was a great effort,” said Goswami, a former India captain who was a key member of the side that triumphed in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games.
“This victory has provided us a great opportunity to progress further, develop further. And youngsters will now be inspired to take up the game in large numbers,” Goswami added.
Syed Nayeemuddin, who was Houghton’s predecessor as national coach and who presently coaches Bangladesh, said, “We now have to pick up from here. It is a historic win. The way Indian footballers played showed their self-confidence and their firm belief in themselves”.
Earlier in the day, Bhutia and some of his teammates arrived in the city from Delhi and were received with a rapturous welcome by soccer fans.