legendary German footballer Paul Breitner on Sunday stressed on the need to have foreign coaches for Indian players from a young age of six to improve the standard of the game in the country.
"India does not need foreign coaches and trainers at the professional level only. The idea should be to introduce children to international coaching when they are just six or seven, the age when they start learning football," said Breitner at a promotional event here. "There is no sense to introduce players of 16-17 years of age to foreign coaching for the first time. Players learn the game from the age of six to around 11-12. After that you can't teach them much and there is possibility of improving by just 10-15 per cent," said the former Bayern Munich left-back.
Breitner was in the capital to select Indian players, who will represent the county at the Adidas FC Bayern Youth Cup at the Allianze Arena in May.Several school teams and academy sides like Hindustan FC, Pune FC, Bengaluru FC among others participated in the competition meant for under-16 players.
Ten footballers were shortlisted to represent the Indian side in the competition which will see teams from China, Thailand, Japan, Austria and others.Breitner said he has been seeing a marked improvement in the Indian footballers.
"Every time I come here I see an improvement in the quality of football played here. I am very excited with what I saw today. I am very surprised by the talent," said Breitner, who was an integral part of the West Germany team that won the 1974 FIFA World Cup.