Bhutia interested in
foreign team only

Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia on Friday ruled out the possibility of playing for an Indian club in the forthcoming season, saying he is focused on turning out only for a foreign team.

"At the moment, I am only thinking of playing for a foreign team as it will help me to improve my standard," said Bhutia, who is holidaying in his hometown Gantok, Sikkim.

The Indian captain, who still has a year to fulfill in his contract with English second division outfit Bury FC, however, refused to divulge his future plans.

"I don't want to comment on my future plans as it has already landed me in controversy," he said.

The 25-year-old striker, the first Indian to play for a professional club abroad, said playing for a professional club outside the country has some obvious advantages and a footballer has to gain from the experience.

"The standard is better there. They teach harder, the game is more physical and you get less space. A footballer will definitely improve his standard if he plays for an outside team," Bhutia remarked.

Asked about his much-publicised trip to Singapore, the star footballer claimed he had been there only for a holiday though officials of some clubs did speak to him.

"I was in Singapore for holidaying. Some club officials spoke to me but nothing concrete came out," he said, refusing to elaborate on negotiations.

The diminutive striker plans to stay in his home state till the end of June and then proceed to a "secret place" which he does not wish to disclose.

Bhutia does not feel that he was under-utilised by Bury FC during the second division league in England.

"Every player has to sit out a few matches. Very few can play in all the matches. There are no regrets for that," he said.

The ace footballer rated India's performance in the recent pre-World Cup Asian Zone qualifying matches as the "best" in the last 30 to 40 years.

"We played very well in that tournament," he observed.

India failed to claim the second position in the Asian Zone group-8 pre--World Cup qualifiers by a narrow margin despite finishing with 11 points, the same as Yemen, who finished ahead by virtue of a better goal difference. The United Arab Emirates was the lone qualifier from the group with 12 points.

The Indian captain is not in favour of appointing a foreign coach, as he feels Indian coaches have the capability of delivering the goods.

"Why talk of a foreign coach now when the present chief coach Sukhwinder Singh is doing well with the boys," he said.

Bhutia declined to comment on whether the All India Football Federation, the game's governing body in the country, has taken any initiative to raise the standard.

As a footballer who rose to the pinnacle of success after beginning his journey to stardom from a small village in Sikkim, Bhutia said developing infrastructure at the grassroot level is imperative to raise the standard of the game.

Despite having scored a number of goals for his country and his respective clubs, Bhutia still believes that his most memorable goal has not yet come.

"It's very difficult to say which one is my best goal. I believe the memorable goal is yet to come in my life," he said.

Speaking at the Tashi Namgyal Academy, in Gantok, the school which contributed a lot to making him what he is today, Bhutia said he makes it a point to visit Sikkim once every year and meet his school teachers.

But when he was a student 10 years back, did he ever think of representing India one day? Or, for that matter, being the first Indian to play for a professional club abroad ?

"I didn't, but I feel great today when I look back," he admitted.

Bhutia, however, has no such 'special moments' to cherish in mind except a 'few silly' ones.

In Sikkim, Bhutia will take part in an exhibition charity match for an ailing Prem Dorjee, another Sikkimese footballer who played for Calcutta clubs for years.

All former and present footballers of Sikkim will play in the match because, as Bhutia says, "he was a great player".