There was a recent article in the BBC about British players representing Pakistan's football team. One of them, Harun Hamid, scored probably the most important goal in Pakistan's football history against Cambodia in the World Cup Qualifiers last month. Pakistan's manager, Stephen Constantine, who used to manage India, stressed the importance of these foreign-born players, especially since Pakistan doesn't have a professional football league and has very little footballing infrastructure.

India is in much better shape than Pakistan in this regard, with the Indian Super League providing match fitness and competitive football to Indian players. Therefore, India's been able to focus on producing homegrown talent and this has worked to an extent, with some good results for the national team in the past year, beating Lebanon and Kuwait in the semi-final and final respectively to win the 2023 SAFF Championship. However, one wonders how much str