ISL can take India to the World Cup one day, says Hans Mulder

New Delhi: India can one day realise the dream of competing in World Cup football through consistently organising the Indian Super League, says star Dutch player Hans Mulder, who replaced the celebrated Alessandro Del Piero as skipper of Delhi Dynamos in the inaugural ISL.

"Everything is possible, India can one day play in the World Cup. If they are able to properly organise the ISL over the next few years, it will definitely help Indian football," Mulder, who scored in the Dynamos' last two wins, told PTI.

The 27-year-old, who has been successful in leading the Dynamos to wins in the last two games, added: "When we first came in, the level of Indian players in our team was not that good, but now they have improved drastically. Imagine if they can improve so much in just 2-3 months, what could be the standard of football in some years."

"The crosses are good now, they are all working in the right direction and working very hard."

Asked if India could put up a strong enough national team with wherewithal to compete in a tournament like the World Cup in some years to come, Mulder responded in positive.

"I think so. A good national team is possible going by the way they are making progress. They have to keep working hard and it can only get better."

Mulder said the franchise-based tournament is a great advertisement for Indian football.

"It's a great opportunity to show the world that India has a great competition. It's one of the nicest competitions that I have played in, it's like a big party," he said.

Delhi Dynamos, who struggled to get going for a major part of the event, are finally beginning to get their act right and are now aiming for a top four slot having notched up convincing wins in their last two outings.

"The problem was with scoring, we created a lot of chances, but now we are playing with a different style. There is a lot of speed and we are scoring, that is what matters. We have a good chance but we will have to do well in the next matches, that is very crucial.

"Now, our game has a lot of speed and power, we are playing possession football."

Talking about his days in India he said, "It's been a great experience, I am happy that I am a part of it. It's a great tournament organised in the right manner with a lot of good Indian and international players.

Among the Indian players that caught his eye in the Delhi Dynamos set-up, he chose defender Anwar Ali.

"Anwar is very good, he has got good passing ability and is great for our team."