65% of India’s elite footballers come from 5 states with total population of 12 crore, new study reveals

LIKE HIS predecessors, FIFA president Gianni Infantino was left searching for answers during a visit to India in October 2022. “It’s a country of more than 1.3 billion, so there must be enough talent in India,” he remarked.

It wasn’t the first time a direct correlation was made between the country’s burgeoning population and its sporting success, or the lack of it. Seen through this prism, India’s repeated failure to find 11 world-class footballers has mystified observers at home and abroad.

However, a new study has some answers.

Research conducted by Richard Hood, UEFA ‘A’ and AFC Pro licence coach and former head of player development of All India Football Federation (AIFF), has revealed that in a sprawling country of a billion-plus people, over 65 per cent of the elite-level footballers hail from only five states – Manipur, Mizoram, West Bengal, Punjab and Goa — whose total population, as per the 2011 Census, was approximately 12.43 crore.

These are the male players — a total of 1,112 — who have played for India in the junior and senior national teams, and the top two divisions of the domestic leagues in the last 22 years.

To further extrapolate this data, Hood’s analysis showed that nearly 90 per cent of India’s footballers have hailed from nine states and one city – Greater Mumbai, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Meghalaya and Sikkim in addition to the five states mentioned above — whose collective population was a little over 25 crore according to the 2011 Census. In other words, about 20 per cent of India’s population contributes to 90 per cent of its best footballers.

The tiny states of Manipur and Mizoram have contributed most to India’s player pool, accounting for almost 31 per cent of elite-level footballers in the