Never has Indian sport witnessed a training program that would match the efforts put in by the current under-17 Indian football team. Being the first Indian team to play in a FIFA World Cup, pardon the age group, preparations have been made on a large scale.

The team landed in the Capital last week and is training at the Gurgaon academy for their opening encounter against USA but the foundation was laid three years ago. The central government and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) already spent more than Rs 30 crore on their preparations.

February 1, 2013 marks the day when the AIFF placed the first brick in the India under-17 foundation.

A proper nine months before the announcement about India hosting the FIFA U-17 World Cup, the federation had started preparations for the mega event.

Picking fresh players born on or after January 1, 2000, the AIFF academy started training a batch of 40 players that now make the 21-man core team for the World Cup.

"This is by far the best batch of footballers India has ever produced. I have never been more proud of being a coach than I am right now. Back then, these youngsters showed incredible grit during the training sessions as they were eager to be part of the World Cup. We made sure the best players of the country were part of this program and left no stone unturned," says Sajid Yousuf Dar, one of the coaches during the team's early preparations.

The 40-team batch was split in two. The first batch trained under academy coach Fransico and consisted a majority of players training there over a year. Batch two, consisting newly scouted players from across country, were taken under his wings by Dar, then under-16 national team coach.

Interestingly, seven of Dar's 'batch of incredibles' are now an integral part of the World Cup team.

"I was given charge of the newly scouted players who hadn't played together. To train them, it was a great experience as they were disciplined kids and responded well to the regime. Today, it makes me proud that seven players I trained are part of the squad. Moreover, they have a good chance of making it to the playing eleven," says Dar, who trained the likes of Komal Thatal, Rahul KP, Boris Singh and Prabhushkan Singh Gill.

After the initial training program, the team played practice games in Goa and one of them was against the Chandigarh Football Academy, a team that gave India its captain Amarjit Singh.

Sanjeev Stalin was also one of the three players from that match to have been selected for the preliminary Indian squad.

Dar's responsibilities ended by November, 2014 as AIFF started looking for a head coach.

As destiny willed, the AIFF was recommended German coach Nicolai Adam, a man who revolutionised Azerbaijan's junior teams. It didn't take a second meeting for the federation to appoint Adam and the preparations had begun.

"India has signed a MoU with Germany's football federation. During one of the meetings, the German federation, knowing that India is going host the World Cup, recommended Nicolai's name. They explained his work in various countries and how successful he had been. The federation knew they got their man," an AIFF official said.

The change was evident under Nicolai. The German insisted on the squad being cut short to 35 men. Camps were set up in Goa while he rigorously spent days scouting for players across India. Despite his scouting programs, it remained highly drifted towards the northeast states. Nicolai, as some say, had his core team.

The AIFF conducted trials in Dubai and Doha but failed to find the right talent. It was when the AIFF launched the Online Overseas Scouting Program, NRIs Namit Deshpande and Sunny Dhaliwal were selected.

The biggest aspect of Nicolai's plans for the Indian team came forward when he stressed upon the importance of foreign tours.

As he famously believed, in countries like Germany, where the national squad doesn't practice together frequently, club competitions are where the best players are found. And playing against these club players will truly bring out the best of Indian colts.

It turns out, Nicolai's tactics were spot on. The team's performance during the exposure tours was impressive. The young guns were repaying the faith and money spent by the Sports Authority of India and the AIFF.

In over two years, including the time since Luis Norton de Matos has taken over, the 30-man squad and eight officials as support staff have travelled across 18 countries, majority of them from Europe.

India played 31 matches in five countries, Germany and Spain being one of them, in 2015. They won 18, drew 3 and lost 10 matches.

The year 2016 saw tours around six countries, Brazil, Luxembourg, Russia, South Africa, Norway and as expected Germany. Team, having played 28 matches, won 15, drew 5 and lost just eight.

A small upset, so to speak, can be drawn from the 2017 exposure tours in Europe's elite football countries. The team could only manage six wins while drawing seven and losing 12 in 25 matches.

Regardless, the team looks prepared for the big stage. Only time will tell whether the hard work put in will pay dividends, but the support and preparedness India has shown for the under-17 World Cup could leave a lasting impression.

The opening encounter against USA on Friday will set the tone for the rest of the tournament.