Indian football is at its lowest FIFA ranking in a decade, at No. 133. After Coach Manolo Marquez’s resignation earlier this month, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) received 170 applications to fill his position and shortlisted three names — India’s Khalid Jamil, England’s Stephen Constantine, and Slovakian Stefan Tarkovic. AIFF are expected to announce the new coach by August 1.
Former India central midfielder Santosh Kashyap was among the 170, who applied, and he’s not bitter at not being shortlisted. Instead, he has some valuable words of advice for the sport’s administrators, who are desperately looking to resurrect football’s downward spiral in the country.
Local knowledge is key
“Even Pep Guardiola [multiple European club title-winning coach] cannot help Indian football. No foreign coach can. Only an Indian coach understands the pulse of the players and is well versed with the system here, so he can deliver. There is no point splurging crores of rupees on foreign coaches, who come in and make unreasonable demands which cannot be fulfilled by the federation. They inevitably fail and put the blame on the players,” Kashyap told mid-day on Friday.
Santosh Kashyap
Kashyap, 59, a Kandivli resident, began his coaching journey with the Maharashtra U-19 women’s team in early 2000 after which he successfully coached multiple club teams, including Air India, Mohun Bagan, ONGC, Rangdajied United FC, Royal Wahingdoh FC, Aizawl FC, Mumbai FC, Salgaocar FC, besides being assistant coach of Indian Super League side NorthEast United FC followed by Odisha FC.
Marquez’s dual role
Kashyap felt appointing Marquez was a mistake, and India’s one win in eight matches under him, proves that. “Manolo was coach of FC Goa when he was appointed coach of the Indian men’s team. Nowhere in the world does this happen. The India coach’s job is a high stress one so it was always going to be difficult for him to deliver. India’s current FIFA ranking is poor and this has happened after a host of foreign coaches have come and gone [Indian football hasn’t had a full-time Indian coach since Sukhvinder Singh, popularly known as Sukhi, in 2005]. When Nayeem [former India coach Syed Nayemuddin] and Sukhi were India coach, our ranking was decent,” added Kashyap, an AFC Pro license coach.
Time is the enemy for the new India coach, considering the AFC Asian Cup qualification third round matches are in October. And Kashyap, a dead-ball specialist in his heyday, curled one in perfectly, citing his own example to explain how a quick turnaround is best suited to an Indian coach. “I’ve always turned around things for my club teams in short spans. I did it with the Indian national women’s team too. After just a month-long camp, we reached the SAFF Women’s Championship semis last year, narrowly losing to Thailand. Foreign coaches will take months to understand the system, while an Indian will work diligently for the honour of the flag,” concluded Kashyap.
