Bengaluru FCs former Spanish manager Albert Roca is among the four foreign coaches who have been shortlisted by All India Football Federation (AIFF) for the job of national coach. All four will be interviewed by the AIFF technical committee, headed by Shyam Thapa, in New Delhi on Thursday.
"The federation has decided to interview the coaches through the Skype for the time being, but if some of them wants to appear personally, they are welcome," a source told IANS.
While Roca is a familiar name in Indian football because of his stint with Bengaluru FC from 2016 to 2018, the other three -- Hakan Ericson of Sweden, Igor Stimac of Croatia and South Korea's Lee Min-sung -- are considered men of considerable experience and reputation in their respective countries.
Roca's name is being discussed in the soccer fraternity as possible India coach right from the day the contract of Stephen Constantine came to an end after the Asian Cup final rounds. Having coached Bengaluru FC, the Spaniard has good equations with several national team players including skipper Sunil Chhetri. A lot, however, will depend on the salary demand of the coaches as federation is presently reluctant to pay more than 25 thousand dollars per month.
Among the other three, Igor Stimac is a well-known name in the circuit both as a player and a coach. The 51-year-old former central defender had played for Croatia for 13 years between 1990 to 2002 and was a member of the squad when Croatia finished third in 1998 France World Cup. He also has a winners' medal in 1987 youth World Cup, but he was then playing for Yugoslavia.
Once his playing days were over, Stimac took up coaching and remained the national coach for a year in 2012. A series of poor results saw him tendering his resignation after an opinion poll found 98 per cent of people in Croatia wanted his out as the chief coach of the national team.
Ericson, on the other hand, comes from a football family as his father, Georg, was the national coach of Sweden. Hakan never had a chance to handle the national team but the 58-year-old coached the Swedish under-21 squad for seven years in a row from 2011 and 2017 and was also the chief coach in 2016 Rio Olympics.
However, in case South Korean Lee Min-sung is selected by the AIFF ahead of the other three European candidates, then he will be first Indian national coach to have played two World Cups. He played in France 1998 and 2002 when his country jointly hosted the meet with South Korea. Lee became hugely popular with the fans for scoring the winner against Japan in 1998 qualification rounds. The 48-year-old former defender coached the South Korea under-23 squad.
(Jaydeep Basu can be contacted at basu.jaydeep@gmail.com)
--IANS
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