Not easy to balance: Del Piero on struggles of Indian team despite ISL growth

Monaco: Former Italy and Juventus great Alessandro Del Piero has ruled out a coaching role in the foreseeable future, including a stint in the Indian Super League, where he played last as a professional.

The 44-year-old, who played for Delhi Dynamos in the inaugural 2014 ISL, is happy being a television pundit. The former World Cup-winning Italy forward had announced his retirement on October 15.

He greeted a select Indian media group with a namaste on the sidelines of the Laureus World Sports Awards held here earlier this week.

"I have been to India couple of times for different reasons after my ISL stint. I am following what is happening in the league. I had a great time there, short time, just three months but happy that the league has grown, it is six months now. I quite like how things are moving," he said.

When asked why the Indian national team is not improving despite ISL being five seasons old, Del Piero said: "I know what is going on with your national team but don't know the reason why they are doing badly. It is not easy. One thing is how you grow the league and another is how national team grows. It is not easy to balance."

Whether he would like to come back to India in a coaching job, he said: "Not at the moment. I see the game in a different way now, working with the tv. Thanks to my experiences in India and Australia my knowledge is growing."

Talking about the 'Ronaldo' effect at Juventus this season, Del Piero is not surprised by the success of the star striker.

"I am not surprised how good he is doing. Cristiano has the same mentality of Juventus. They want to win every game, ever friendly game, every training game. The result is there to see.

"Now, they are in toughest phase of the season. Juventus needs the best Ronaldo and Ronaldo needs the best Juventus. The team is really high level but the other teams are not. So they need more competition," he added.