'A lot of Indians might not know that we won gold in Asian Games'

Rathore urges to develop Indian football

Union sports minister Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, on Saturday, said India must work hard towards bringing back the lost glory of football.

"We need to bring up the Indian football and develop in a lot of other sports," the Olympics silver medallist said on the sidelines of the FIFA U-17 World Cup final.

The sports minister earlier met Indian football legend PK Banerjee and inaugurated a dressing room in his name at the Sports Authority of India Eastern Centre.

"A lot of spectators today might not know that we won gold medal in football in Asian Games and the captain of that team was from Bengal," he said about the Chuni Goswami-led Asian Games triumph in 1962.
“We were once at the 14th position at the Olympics. So These are important moments for us."

Impressed with the facilities at the Salt Lake Stadium, he said, "The infrastructure here is good. I want the facilities to be regularly used by the players. If the infrastructure remain unused then what is the point of maintaining it? Therefore we need more players to come up."

"The infrastructure here is good. I want the facilities to be regularly used by the players. If the infrastructure remain unused then what is the point of maintaining it? Therefore we need more players to come up," he said.