‘India better than what world ranking suggests’

Jeje, who terms Chennai as his second home, said the three seasons in the glitzy league has been a huge learning curve. “As a striker, I improved my movements inside the box. I am confident of my finishing too. As an individual, I learnt to stay focussed no matter what. In football, hard work is the most important factor and I give a lot of emphasis to my discipline,” he said. The Mizoram-born player, who is a vital cog in the Indian team, said India are a far better team than the world ranking suggests. Ranked 148 in the world, India didn’t have the best of times in the World Cup qualifiers too. “We are better than what the ranking is. If we play more friendly matches, we can improve on it. We don’t play enough matches for us to have a big ranking,” he said. 

According to Jeje, Indian football is moving in the right direction and he emphasises that the day India playing in a World Cup isn’t far away. “We know the results didn’t go our way. But we know we have played well. We take pride from the fact that we have given tough fight to other teams. We will play the World Cup sooner or later. We still have a lot of work to do in terms of improving our standard. We need to give time for that too,” the 25-year-old added. The forward feels coaching children should start early to improve the situation. “We have a good grassroots structure. In my opinion, we should start coaching children when they are seven or eight years old, instead of 15 or 16. That gives them more time to adapt to the best practices easily . That might be vital in improving our standards for the next generation,” Jeje said. The Chennaiyin player said he is under no pressure to prove his mettle. “I don’t have any pressure. We score sometimes and we miss at times too. That is how the game is. I am happy to score or to contribute. There is no pressure of playing in the forward line,” he added.