Indian Football Team Coach was Slammed by Fans

Indian National football team coach Stephen Constantine on Friday announced a list of 30 probable players for India's forthcoming international friendly against Jordan to be held in Amman on 17th November.

This will be the first time when the two countries will meet each other in an international friendly match. As per the latest FIFA Rankings, India is currently ranked 97, while Jordan is at 112. There were 14 U-23 players in the list of probable players, who have been named in the list of 30, Constantine, the coach has also recalled three other players named as goalkeeper Arindam Bhattacharya, defender Nishu Kumar and winger Jackichand Singh for the camp. Surprisingly, Constantine has omitted Jamshedpur FC's Michael Soosairaj despite the midfielder scored fantastically on three occasions for his side in the Indian Super League which bought a spot light on him. It was a very surprising decision when he was not included in the list of probable players. Indian football fans were pretty furious when the All India Football Federation official twitter handle announced the national team selection for the upcoming game against Jordan. The federation released the team and fans were pretty shocked to see some of the in-form Indian superstars in the Indian Super League have been overlooked over some out-form players.  In a recent game against FC Goa, Soosairaj beautifully scored two goals and played a big role in his 4-1team’s success. After this game, fans totally started trusting that Soosairaj is one to be definitely best picked for the upcoming friendly games. However, they were very furious to see that he was neglected from the list of probable whereas Farukh Choudhary and Sumeet Passi, the out-form players had made it to the list. Fans also pointed out Leon Doungel, Mandar Rao Desai, Sahal Abdul Samad and CK Vineeth's non-selection. They busted out their anger on the official twitter handle of the federation. “Constantine just gets instructions from AIFF Management. The corruption and politics in selection process is rooted in AIFF from top to bottom (Youth to Senior). Even if Constantine won't be there then there will be some other "Yes Man" of AIFF but no "World Respected Person"”. Twitted Utkarsh Bhargava, a fan.  After the list of probable players announced, Constantine said "We expect to play our game and try to win. When we play against the likes of China and Jordan, you need to understand that we are facing good teams. We will have to build on our previous result. Our main focus will be to stay in shape with and without the ball".

By:Anuja Arora

Content: https://www.foxsportsasia.com/football/asian-football/966165/indian-football-fans-slam-stephen-constantine-over-non-selection-of-in-form-jamshedpur-fc-player-michael-soosairaj-for-jordan-friendly/