Lionel Messi came to India on a three-day visit. During this GOAT tour, he participated in various events in Kolkata, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Delhi. Despite sky-high ticket prices, fans filled the stadiums hoping to catch a glimpse of Messi. Not just the fans, the organizers also spent heavily to bring Messi. Including events at four venues, crores of rupees were spent on everything combined. But the future of Indian football was in darkness before, and it remains so now. Due to lack of investors, complications are increasing regarding the organization of ISL and I-League. It's like both sides of the same coin. Indian football star Sandesh Jhingan expressed his anger and frustration about this.
He made a post about this on his social media handle. Big entrepreneurs are not hesitating to spend crores of rupees to bring Messi. But Sandesh cannot accept their reluctance to save Indian football. He made a long post about this on his Instagram.
He wrote, 'The sudden love for football across the country in the past few days is quite surprising. First of all, I want to say that it was good to see that people in our country can also fill galleries for football. But one thing is bothering me – amid all this, football in our country is probably going through its worst time. Whether we can play domestic football next season is now in question. Everything is being covered up because no one wants to invest in Indian football. Yet crores of rupees were spent on Messi's tour. This proves that we love football but don't want to support our own footballers.'
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Sandesh also acknowledged that Indian footballers face criticism due to consistently poor performances. He also took responsibility for disappointing football fans. Despite this, he made an earnest plea to stand by Indian football. This demand became even stronger after Messi's GOAT tour. Sandesh highlighted this issue in his post as well.
He wrote, 'We can bring back the good days of Indian football again. But now I'm really asking myself many questions. I'm very happy that lakhs of people were able to make their dreams come true. I hope that after this event, the same kind of urgency will be seen in solving Indian football's problems. So I hope there will be discussions not just about loving football, but also about how to show that for our country.'
Experts believe Sandesh's demand is quite reasonable. Before Messi's India tour, a section of Indian football fans had raised this very question. Given the infrastructure from which Indian footballers emerge, expecting world-class performance on the international stage is also wrong. Where crores of rupees are being spent on Messi's tour, the reluctance to invest in improving the country's football infrastructure is quite noticeable.
