U-20 Football team reaches Delhi; Argentina's Aimar, Scaloni lauds the players

NEW DELHI: India's National Under-20 Men's Football team arrived at the national capital's IGI Airport airport early on Friday morning. The U-20 team created history by beating Argentina in the COTIF Cup in Spain on August 6. 

India beat Spain 2-1 and earned praised from personalities like India's Sports Minister Rajyavardhan Rathore, former Argentine great Pablo Aimar and Argentina U-20 coach for COTIF Cup, Lionel Scaloni. 

The win was commendable not just because of the reputation Argentina has but because the Indian team had previously gone down to Murcia and Mauritania before holding off Venezuela.

Rathore on Monday congratulated the team on Twitter and said that India's sporting future is in very safe hands. 

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Argentina's Aimar and Scaloni lavished praise on the Indian colts on Thursday. The duo had dropped into the Indian camp to congratulate on the win and have a chat with the Indian players. 
 
"We would be happy and would like to play other Indian age groups teams as well. The U-20 Indian National Team players played well with lot of passion and the players ran a lot during the matches," Aimar, regarded by many as one of the most elegant Argentine players after Diego Maradona, said.

"We would be happy and would like to play matches against Indian National Teams in India or in Argentina in near future," he opined.

Lionel Scaloni, who coached Argentina U-20 in the COTIF Cup singled out Amarjit Singh and Jeakson Singh for their performances.

"Indian Captain Amarjit Singh played very well against Argentina and Jeakson Singh was very impressive the manner he played against Murcia," Scaloni, who has taken up as the head coach of the Argentina senior national team stated.

"If India continue to play like this for three or four more years, the players have a bright future ahead. We are happy to meet these young players."

"The Indian Team were very well behaved in the team hotel and there was mutual respect between both the teams." 

(With PTI inputs)