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The discussions on the inclusion of 'Players of Indian Origin' holding a PIO/OCI card in the Indian national football team is ongoing, but I wanted to bring some more light into the matter as a lot of wrong information is being spread around about who all are eligible to play for India and comparisons are being made with other cases around the world, while it also seems anyone playing football in Europe or North America should immediately be called into the India set-up.
As per FIFA regulations some of the best PIOs are no longer eligible to play for India as they have played official 'A' international matches for the senior national teams of other nations. Below a list:
- Neil John Taylor (Wales, Swansea City) - mother was born in Kolkata- Luciano Narsingh (Netherlands, PSV Eindhoven) - grandparents are from India while his parents were born in Suriname- Harmeet Singh (Norway, Molde FK)- Darryl Lachman (Curacao, Sheffield Wednesday)- Prince Linval Reuben Mathilda Rajcomar (Curacao, BEC Tero Sasana)- Rhys Williams (Australia, FC Middlesbrough) - mother was born in Mumbai
So no Neil Taylor, Luciano Narsingh, Harmeet Singh, etc for Team India, but there are enough boys who should be given the chance, if the Government of India allows them, to come for a trial to India and show themselves to India coach Stephen Constantine and his staff. Then there is another matter, which is not all will be able to adapt to Indian conditions, so to me a trial is a must.
Over the years I have have had conversations with a number of PIOs with many showing an interest to come and play for Team India, amongst them being Michael Chopra (Alloa Athletic), Netan Sansara (Fredrikstad FK) and even Harmeet Singh when still eligible for India.
But there are still other candidates like Luciano's older brother Furdjel Narsingh of Dutch Eredivisie side SC Cambuur, English-born Daniel 'Danny' Tanveer Batth of English Championship side Wolverhampton Wanderers, Dutch-born Ricardo Kishna of Dutch giants Ajax Amsterdam, Australia-born Ryan Dale Williams (younger brother of Rhys Williams) playing for English Championship side Fulham FC or Dutch-born Diego Biseswar playing for Turkish side Kayserispor.
And then there are the comparisons being made with players of origin from other nations, where a lot of people are able to make the difference between players of origin who return to play for the country of their parents or grandparents and those playing for another country in which they either are born as migrants or have lived for a few years as footballers.
The best and most difficult example to explain are half brothers Jerome and Kevin Prince Boateng born in Berlin, Germany. While Jerome decided to play for the country of his mother, Germany; Kevin Prince as a player of origin decided to play for the country of his father, Ghana, a country in which he has never lived in.
A bad PIO comparison is e.g. Diego Costa, who played for Brazil but then decided to play for Spain after qualifying to get a Spanish passport.
