Disclaimer: The entire content and idea of this thread are my own. I have only used ChatGPT to refine sentence construction and correct grammatical errors so that readers can understand it more clearly

Humanity is not finished and neither is India. We still have the opportunity to build world-class sporting ecosystems, empower young talent to pursue sports as a serious profession, and compete with pride on the global stage..

Thank you.

Jai Hind.
Vande Mataram.
Make India Great Again.

Messi’s recent visit to India should not be seen as a moment of pride alone, but as a reminder of the gap between where Indian sport could have been and where it stands today.

Even China, with a population comparable to ours, consistently wins far more Olympic medals than India, demonstrating how strong sporting infrastructure can elevate a nation’s pride on the world stage....

India has enormous untapped potential. With the right infrastructure, coaching, and career pathways, the country could produce athletes capable of drawing global attention even in football powerhouses like Argentina, Brazil, or France...

NOTE : To be clear, I have no personal hatred toward any foreign player or nation. I retired from following football and other sports a long time ago. This thread is simply a rant from an Indian frustrated by the dilapidated state of our sporting infrastructure

India would not be a country where the tallest statue of a footballer is of a foreign player like Messi, but rather one honoring an Indian football legend.

In India, our own football icons have had to plead with Indians to support them and rally behind them...

This again highlights that population size is meaningless without structure, culture, and professional systems.

Had our policymakers invested seriously in sports infrastructure especially at the grassroots level instead of indulging in corruption...

and destruction of many youth's dream and career..

As a cricket-obsessed nation, even our success in cricket has been inconsistent when compared to countries like Australia,which outperform India despite having a far smaller population and a much less cricket-obsessed society.

This contrast does not reflect a lack of talent in India...it exposes the depth of our institutional failure in sports.We have consistently allowed people with little to no experience in competitive sport to control sporting bodies,resulting in poor governance,weak grassroots development..

It is a shame for India that a country with a population of under 4 million...like Croatia, could produce 11 players capable of reaching the FIFA World Cup final in 2018, while a nation of over 1.4 billion people now cannot even assemble a team that qualifies for the World Cup...

Here, I want to focus on something far bigger..something Indians have ignored for a very long time.

Let’s get straight to the point...

I will not focus here on the mismanagement surrounding Messi’s visit,or on how Indian celebrities and politicians hijacked the moment from genuine fans.That is a discussion for another day..