Desmond Bulpin And Sukhwinder Singh To Lead India Into Asian Games

The much talked about Desmond Bulpin arrived at the national capital on Monday as he would take over the mooted All India Football Federation (AIFF) XI who shall participate in the I-League starting the upcoming season.

Indian national team coach Bob Houghton had suggested the Englishman’s name for the post but it took a while before the AIFF and Bulpin could reach an agreement both on financial and contractual terms.

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he much talked about Desmond Bulpin arrived at the national capital on Monday as he would take over the mooted All India Football Federation (AIFF) XI who shall participate in the I-League starting the upcoming season.


Indian national team coach Bob Houghton had suggested the Englishman’s name for the post but it took a while before the AIFF and Bulpin could reach an agreement both on financial and contractual terms.

Having managed Tottenham’s youth team where he oversaw the development of England international Jermain Defoe, the expectations from Bulpin would be sky high. He has also managed Queen’s Park Rangers and the national team of Philippines.

Sukhwinder Singh, who has a contract with the AIFF until the end of Asian Games, is overseeing the training of the 24 players who are/will be part of the federation’s team.

Meanwhile the AIFF has also listed another 14 players who were part of the India U-23 squad who participated in the SAFF cup 2009 and AFC Challenge Cup 2010 and could possibly join the Asian Games team. After the Indian National Team returns from Portugal, some of those boys (U-23) could join the Asain Games team.

It is learnt that Bulpin and Sukhwinder shall work together until November following which the former shall take over the reins completely.

The idea behind the AIFF XI team is to ensure that the youngsters, who are the future of the country, stay together and thereby, possibly be a part of the team that fights for the 2018 World Cup qualification.

AIFF U-19 team:

Ravi Kumar, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Jagroop Singh, Vishal Kumar Ravindrakumar, Abhishek Das, Indrapreet Singh, Deepak Devrani, Raju Eknath Gaikwad, Souvik Ghosh, Lalrozama Fanai, Prathamesh, Aksay Vimal Kumar Mali, Subodh Kumar, O. Milan Singh, Lalrindika Ralte, Tirthankar Sarkar, Jibon Singh, Jeje Lalpekhlua, Manandeep, Jagtar Singh, Malswmfela.

Asian Games team:

Nirmal Chettri, Baldeep Singh, Sushil Kumar Singh, D. Ravanan, Debabrata Roy, Arindam Bhattacharya, Rowilson Rodrigues, Naoba Singh, Robert, N. Mohanraj, Baljit Sahni, Jagpreet Singh, Rakesh Masih, Govin Singh.