Current Indian senior side star Baljit Sahni believes teams with the best grassroots system have made it to the Final and he is expecting nothing less than an intoxicating title match on Saturday at the Yuba Bharati Krirangan stadium.
"Spain has performed brilliantly in this World Cup," said Baljit while talking from Pune. "I believe their system from grassroots until elite is one of the reasons they are doing so well. Finding talent early through this system is showing results as anyway the sport comes naturally to one and all there. Same goes for England, who were impressive too. This will be the first time two European sides will meet in an under-17 Final. England's performance against Brazil was fantastic and mind you the Final is going to be an exciting fixture."
His teammate in FC Pune City, Kean lewis also believes that the two deserving teams have made it to the Final and is putting his money on England despite predicting Spain versus Brazil final earlier.
"Both teams were deserved candidate for the final," said lewis. "At the start of the World Cup my money was on Brazil and Spain to reach the Final, and Spain did make it. But looking at the recent performance I think England got the edge. But it all comes down to those 90 minutes, and whoever plays the best will win the match. Both teams have a proper youth development system in place, they nurture players from an early age, and the result is evident."
When asked to pick their favourite player from the tournament, the two Pune city wingers made the same choice — Rhian Brewster.
On the performance of India in the under-17 tournament, the former East Bengal player Baljit felt that performance could have been better.
"Playing in a World Cup tournament is a big achievement for India but game-wise it wasn't as good as I expected. After getting so much exposure in foreign for months I had a better expectation for the teams. We were second best in many aspects of the game, and being physically weaker to them was one of the common aspects in all three games. Even possession-wise we were not good," said the Pune winger.
Kean, on the other hand, liked the development the under-17 team made in the tournament and felt India were on par with others.
"Unfortunately, where we lacked was the finishing and attacking players being isolated in the offensive region because we mostly focused on defending. They need to work on creating from the back," said the former Mohun Bagan forward.