Around the same time, Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted a photograph of him shaking hands with his counterpart in the United Kingdom in front of the Premier League trophy, a shocking revelation hit Indian football.

"Football is widely admired among India's youth, and several football clubs based in the UK are very popular in India," Modi posted.

Meanwhile, it emerged that the All India Football Federation (AIFF), which is on the search for a new men's team head coach, were presented with the golden opportunity to sign one of the best minds in the game, but overlooked the idea due to expenses.

Spanish football legend Xavi Hernandez, popularly known as Xavi, was one of the names that came up for consideration before the AIFF technical committee headed by I M Vijayan.

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Xavi has not returned to coaching since leaving the Barcelona job in May 2024. As a manager, Xavi lifted the La Liga title with his boyhood club in 2022-23. He had started his managerial career with Al Sadd in Qatar before returning to Spain.

The Indian men's football team is without a manager since the AIFF parted ways with Manolo Marquez. Recently, the Indian men's team slipped to a nine-year low of 133 in the FIFA rankings.

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