Indian football coaches, including top names such as Armando Colaco, Derrick Pereira and Sanjoy Sen, have hailed FIFA's Elite course, calling it a "platform" to evolve.
In their quest to evolve, 31 club coaches including Colaco, Pereira, Sen, Thangboi Singto, Santosh Kashyap and Savio Medeira - ranging from the I-League to the second division participated in the course which was held in Margao, Goa from June 18 to 22.
The FIFA Elite Course acted as a feeder of modern day coaching in club football, which included topics like tactics, system and philosophies. The course also acted as a platform to brush up some of the fundamentals of the game, whilst acting as a catalyst to the evolving breed of Indian coaches.
This year's course was conducted by Jochen Figge from Germany, who besides being a FIFA instructor is also a technical member of the DFB.
Over the years,Figge has also coached several national teams namely Guinea, Zambia, Trinidad & Tobago and Ethiopia, and has also being actively involved in several development programmes both for FIFA and DFB.
Mohun Bagan's head coach Sen, who led the Green and Maroon brigade to their first ever I-League Trophy, expressed the gravity of the word evolution in a coach's dictionary.
"Every coach has to evolve with every passing game. And the inability to do so will render you from winning matches. We must adapt with the ever-changing scenarios in world football and this course has enabled us to do just that."
"It is imperative for coaches to learn, from anything and everything in the footballing cosmology. Coaches are like teachers, and the common dividend amongst both is knowledge. If knowledge is absent, both will perish," he added.
Indian coaches have to also adjust to the high level of competition present within the game, which was evident in the this year's I-League.
