ISL helped Indian football take giant leap: Rohit Sharma

India opener Rohit Sharma, who on Thursday joined hands with Spanish LaLiga as its brand ambassador in India, feels that Indian football has taken a giant leap in recent years thanks to the Indian Super League (ISL).

"Indian football has taken giant leap in the last few years. It has become competitive and you can see that when you watch ISL or when you see the Indian national team play," Rohit said here.

"The infrastructure has grown immensely and ISL in particular has provided a good platform to younger Indian players to come out and display their skills, just like how IPL has done for Indian cricket," said Rohit, who scored 71 to help India seal the three-match T20I series against the West Indies 2-1 on Wednesday.

Rohit also expressed his fondness for Spanish giants Real Madrid and its manager and iconic ex-France midfielder Zinedine Zidane.

"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 and how they play the game. Real Madrid is also a favourite because of the skill and passion with which they play," he said.

Rohit also spoke about Indian cricketers being football buffs and how some of them imitate footballers' hairstyles.

"The young guys who have come into the team like Shreyas Iyer, K.L. Rahul, Hardik Pandya... They all follow football and they do watch all these footballers, their hairstyles and what they do with their hair," Rohit said.

When asked who is the best footballer in Indian cricket team, Rohit replied: "There are lots of them actually... We have got Zlatan Ibrahimovic in our squad as well, that's Ishant Sharma. But M.S. Dhoni is the number one football player."

( With inputs from IANS )