Two new junior coaches. Two strong resumes. Tim White took charge of the Indian Junior Women’s Hockey Team in April. Frederic Soyez followed as coach of the Junior Men’s team in May. Both arrived after Sreejesh’s tenure ended following the Junior World Cup in December 2025.
Read More: The Sreejesh Paradox: Why India’s Most Successful Junior Coach Was Passed Over for a Foreign Vision
White guided Belgium U21 women to bronze at the 2025 Junior World Cup. He was part of the Belgium senior staff that took the women from 12th to 3rd in the world. They reached the Paris 2024 semi-finals. Soyez has coached at three Olympics. He won Junior World Cup silver with France in 2013 and spent seven years building Spain into a European force. White is also not an unfamiliar face in India. He coached the Accord Tamil Nadu Dragons in HIL Season 2 before taking up this role.
Hockey India has recruited well. Both appointments carry a clear mandate. Build a pipeline. Develop players who can bridge to the senior team. Prepare for India’s 2036 Olympic bid, with Ahmedabad as the proposed host city. However, the structure for Indian junior hockey today does not match the ambition.
How Does the Calendar Look Today?
In 2026, both junior teams have one confirmed tournament. The Junior Asia Cup in Moqi, China. The Sultan of Johor Cup for the men has not been announced yet. The women’s side has no invitational tournament equivalent. That is the reality facing two coaches who have just arrived with a mandate to build towards 2027.
This is not unusual, it is the pattern. In World Cup years, both teams play four to six tournaments. In non-World Cup years, that drops to one or two. Sometimes just one.
| Year | Junior Men | Junior Women | Notes |
| 2016 | 6 | 1 | Men’s World Cup year, won title |
| 2017 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2018 | 2 | 1 | |
| 2019 | 2 | 3 | |
| 2021 | 1 | 1 | Men’s World Cup year |
| 2022 | 1 | 1 | Women’s World Cup year |
| 2023 | 5 | 5 | Both World Cup year |
| 2024 | 3 | 3 | |
| 2025 | 4 | 6 | Both World Cup year |
| 2026 | 1* | 1* | Junior Asia Cup confirmed, more TBC |
*As of May 2026. 2020 not captured as hockey was impacted by Covid.
The next Junior World Cup is in 2027. Six months remain in 2026 and both programmes have one tournament confirmed. That is not a preparation calendar. That is a holding pattern.
The Investment
Hockey India has not disclosed what Soyez and White are being paid. But Craig Fulton’s salary provides useful context. Fulton is the highest paid foreign coach engaged by any National Sports Federation in India. He earns Euro 24,286 per month. That figure was confirmed through a Rajya Sabha reply in December 2025. Even if they earn one third of Fulton’s salary, that is approximately Rs 8.10 lakh per month per coach. This takes Rs 100 to the euro as a working average.
Foreign coaches earn far more than Indian coaches in hockey. That gap is well documented and goes beyond any single appointment. An Indian coach at the top of the system earns between Rs 2.25 and Rs 2.50 lakh per month. A mid-level Indian coach earns around Rs 1 lakh. If Hockey India had appointed Indian coaches to both junior roles, the combined monthly outlay would likely have been under Rs 5 lakh.
The federation has chosen to go foreign. The credentials of these coaches justify that call. But it makes the question of competitive exposure more pointed. You cannot justify the spend on the coaches without also justifying the spend on giving them something to work with.
This is not an argument against paying Soyez and White well. Both are experienced coaches who should command competitive salaries. The question is simpler. If Hockey India is spending big on coaches, the calendar has to reflect that ambition. One confirmed tournament per programme in 2026 is not a return on that investment. It is a wasted opportunity.
The Structure Gap and What Can Be Done
The senior men’s team has the FIH Pro League. Roughly 16 home and away matches against the world’s best sides every season. The junior teams have nothing close to that. The gap is not just between senior and junior hockey in India. It is between how Indian junior players build competitive experience and how their European counterparts do it.
A Dutch or Belgian junior player at a top club plays 30 to 40 competitive matches in a season before reaching a national camp. European junior players arrive at tournaments match sharp because their club seasons demand it. Indian junior players do not have that. Soyez and White know what a match-ready player looks like. They will notice the difference quickly.
Extend the HIL roster for junior players
Hockey India could ask each HIL franchise to field at least three junior players. The cost would be split between Hockey India and the franchise. Junior players would not command significant salaries unless exceptional. That makes this a low-cost addition for franchises. Junior players get competitive HIL exposure. Soyez and White get players who arrive at national camps having played real hockey, not just practised it.
Build more MoUs on the Australia model
IIndia and Australia already have a framework for bilateral matches at senior and junior level. The current U-18 Australian men’s and women’s teams are in India for matches. The senior sides have also toured each other ahead of major tournaments. Hockey India should now look to build similar arrangements with New Zealand, South Africa, and Argentina. None of these countries have strong domestic structures. Many of their players are based in European club competitions. Guaranteed fixtures serve both sides. Their teams get competitive matches outside Europe. India gets intensity of playing against physical, well-coached opposition.
Revive the Australian Hockey League model
India junior men entered the Australian Hockey League as a team in 2016 and 2017. Hockey One League replaced it and already has an appetite for international involvement. The MoU with Australia makes this a conversation worth having, either as a team entry or as individual players picked up by clubs.
Inter-squad domestic tournaments
Cricket in India runs A, B, and C team tournaments that mix first-choice, development, and junior players. Junior players get quality exposure without international travel. Hockey has national championships domestically, and last year saw national team players take part for the first time. But Soyez and White are not connected to that domestic structure. An India A versus India B format, run by the junior coaches, gives them match-sharp players. It gives fringe players a real pathway.
None of this requires a structural overhaul. It requires Hockey India to be more deliberate with what it already has.
Soyez and White are good appointments. But credentials alone do not build a junior programme. Hockey India has made the announcements. Now it needs to build the structure that gives these coaches a real chance to deliver.
2026 is a big year for Indian hockey. Nations Cup. World Cup. Asian Games. A lot can go right. A lot can go wrong. Subscribe to the Give Me Hockey newsletter and follow every step of it.
