After Brazil coach Carlo Ancelotti caused quite a stir last month when he said India did not have a footballing culture, Uruguay coach Diego Forlan said that while the main sport in the country was cricket, India still had a lot of young talented football players.

“Your main sport is cricket, so it’s different. Football has been here for many years, of course, but it’s not the main sport. But you have a lot of young talented players,” Forlan said, speaking on the eve of the India vs Uruguay match.

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The 2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner said that playing international friendlies against stronger opposition like Brazil and Uruguay would benefit the Blue Tigers in the long run. “I think this kind of game, playing against Brazil, Uruguay, and also having a strong league, would improve the development of young players. In the near future, India could be playing important and crucial games,” he said.

You need to build from the roots — academies, young players, kids to start playing a lot. If you build more academies, the league gets stronger and stronger, you will achieve getting more players and getting better players, that’s for sure,” added Forlan.

Before the Uruguay fixture, India have played Panama against whom they drew 1-1 and then taken on Brazil, where they showed some spark in the beginning before getting trounced 4-0.

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Uruguay, meanwhile, landed in Kolkata on September 30 and have been taking time to acclimatise to the Indian conditions. We know it’s not going to be easy. Playing here, the weather is humid. You also need to adapt. That’s why all these days that we came here were good for us to adapt. The weather is different from Japan and Korea, so we know it’s going to be a difficult game,” Forlan said.

Before talking on India, Uruguay had toured Japan and Korea, losing to the former 1-3 and defeating the latter 4-1.