Rohit Sharma was announced as the La Liga brand ambassador in India and in the Indian cricketer became the first non-footballer in the history of the league to do so.
Asked who was his favourite player and club, Rohit said Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid. No wonder Rohit wants Real Madrid to win the Champions Trophy. Next up was favourite FIFA World Cup team, and the answer was Spain.
"This is not because I am associated with La Liga. I used to love Zinedine Zidane, I watched him play and that's how I started watching football regularly and Spain obviously because of their skills, how they play football.
"Real Madrid is again because of the skill and passion, how they play and how much skills they have within the group," he said.
He is also the first non-footballer in the Spanish league's history to be named as brand ambassador.
He was asked who is the best footballer in Indian cricket team and Rohit said, "There are lots of them actually, we have got Zlatan Ibrahimovic in our squad as well, that's Ishant Sharma. MS Dhoni is the number one football player."
Rohit said the standard of Indian football has improved in recent years.
"Indian football has taken giant leap in last few years. It has become competitive and you can see that when you watch ISL and when you see the Indian national team play against all the opposition."
"The infrastructure has grown immensely and ISL, in particular, has provided a good platform to younger Indian players to come out and display the skills, just like how IPL has done for Indian cricket."
On the association with La Liga, Rohit said, "Football in India, is in its global growth trajectory and it is heartening to see that it is no more considered as the 'sleeping giant'.
"Over the course of the past five years, we have witnessed a significant growth in the interest for football in India. Credit must be given to everyone associated with it, including the fans.
(With inputs from PTI)
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