Indian national soccer team

Republic of India
भारत गणराज्य (Hindi); Republic of India (English)

Nickname (s)

The Blue Tigers

Association

All India Football Federation

confederacy

AFC

Technical sponsor

Nike

Head coach

Igor Štimac (since 2019)

captain

Sunil Chhetri

Record scorer

Sunil Chhetri (72)

Record player

Sunil Chhetri (115)

FIFA code

IND

FIFA rank

108th (1187 points)
(as of July 16, 2020)

First jersey

Second jersey

statistics

First international game France 2-1 India ( London , England ; July 31, 1948 )

Biggest win India 7-0 Ceylon ( Bangalore , India ; December 16, 1963 )

Biggest defeat Soviet Union 11: 1 India ( Moscow , USSR ; September 16, 1955 )

Successes in tournaments

Asian Championship

Participation in the finals

4 ( first : 1964 )

Best results

2nd place 1964

(As of March 5, 2014)

The Indian national soccer team represents the South Asian Republic of India in soccer .

history

The Indian Football Federation ( All India Football Federation , AIFF for short ) was founded in 1937 and joined FIFA in 1948, one year after the country gained independence . In the same year, the first international match was played during the Summer Olympics in London . Raman scored the first goal for India in their 2-1 loss to France.

In 1950, due to the withdrawal of some teams, India was even invited to the finals of the World Cup in Brazil . The Indian association declined to participate. The reason is often given that FIFA had recently banned football games without shoes. Other reasons are likely to have been the financial burdens of the long journey and - according to the memories of Sailen Manna - also the minor importance of the World Cup in contrast to the Olympic Games. After that, the team only took part in qualifying games in the run-up to the 1986 World Cup, but never qualified for World Cups. In the qualifying games for the 2006 World Cup, India lost to Japan and Oman, among others . India was also not represented at the 2010 World Cup, as they lost to Lebanon in the first qualifying round .

The Indian national team participated in the Olympic soccer tournament four times from 1948 to 1960. At the Olympic Games in 1956 , she surprisingly reached the bronze game, but lost to Bulgaria .

India was more successful on an Asian level. It won the Asian Games in 1951 and 1961. It also won the South Asian Association Games three times (1985, 1987 and 1995) and the South Asian Association Cup (SAFFC - South Asian Football Federation Cup ) seven times (1993, 1997, 1999, 2005, 2009, 2011) and 2015). India has so far been represented twice at the Asian Cup: When they first participated in 1964, the team defeated the previous defending champion from South Korea and finished second behind the winner Israel . In the second participation, the Indians were eliminated in the preliminary round.

India won the first Asian title since 1961 at the AFC Challenge Cup in 2008 . The final against Tajikistan in Ambedkar Stadium won the team with three goals from Sunil Chhetri and one more goal from Baichung Bhutia with 4-1; India was thus qualified for an Asian Cup for the first time since 1984 . After defeats against Bahrain , Australia and South Korea, however, the team was eliminated without winning a point in the preliminary round. India is again qualified for the 2019 Asian Cup.

Indian team before a 2007 international match

Participation of India in the Olympic Games

1948 London round of 16

1952 Helsinki qualification

1956 in Melbourne 4th place

1960 in Rome preliminary round

Not qualified in Tokyo in 1964

Did not take part in 1968 in Mexico City

1972 in Munich not qualified

Did not participate in Montreal in 1976

1980 Moscow did not qualify

Did not qualify in Los Angeles in 1984

Not qualified in Seoul in 1988

Participation of India in the soccer world championships

1930 no association
1934 no association
Not a FIFA member in 1938
1950 participation in the final round withdrawn
1954 Registration rejected by FIFA
1958 did not participate
1962 did not participate
1966 did not participate
1970 did not participate
1974 Participation withdrawn
1978 did not participate
1982 did not participate
1986 not qualified
1990 did not participate
1994 not qualified
1998 did not qualify
2002 did not qualify
2006 did not qualify
2010 did not qualify
2014 did not qualify
2018 did not qualify

Participation of India in the Asian soccer championships

1956 did not participate
1960 did not qualify
1964 second
1968 not qualified
1972 did not participate
1976 did not participate
1980 did not participate
1984 preliminary round
1988 did not qualify
1992 did not qualify
1996 not qualified
2000 did not qualify
2004 did not qualify
2007 did not qualify
2011 preliminary round
2015 did not qualify
2019 preliminary round

Participation of India in the AFC Challenge Cup

2006 quarter finals
2008 winner
2010 preliminary round
2012 preliminary round
2014 did not qualify

Participation of India in the South Asian Championships

1993 - South Asian Champion
1995 - second
1997 - South Asian Champion
1999 - South Asian Champion
2003 - third
2005 - South Asian Champion
2008 - second
2009 - South Asian Champion
2011 - South Asian Champion
2013 - second
2015 - South Asian Champion

Record player

(As of November 19, 2019)

Record player
Games	player	Period	Gates
115	Sunil Chhetri	2005–	72
082	Baichung Bhutia	1995-2011	27
072	Climax Lawrence	2003-2011	03
071	Gouramangi Singh	2006-2013	06th
070	Invalappil Mani Vijayan	1989-2004	29

Record shooters
Gates	player	Period	Games
72	Sunil Chhetri	2005–	115
29	Invalappil Mani Vijayan	1989-2004	070
27	Baichung Bhutia	1995-2011	082
23	Shabbir Ali	1974-1984	066
23	Jeje Lalpekhlua	2009-	056