The All India Football Federation’s (AIFF) technical committee has short-listed four candidates, including two-time South Korean World Cupper Lee Min-sung and the familiar Albert Roca, for the job of the chief coach of the men’s national team.
Besides Lee Min-sung and Roca, who tasted immense success at Bengaluru FC, the other two in the fray are ex-Croatia national team manager Igor Stimac and former Sweden coach Hakan Ericson. The technical committee, headed by former India international Shyam Thapa, will hold another round of discussion with the short-listed candidates next week, tentatively on May 8 or 9.
Online interviews
“It will again be in the form of interviews via Skype and then the most suitable name will be forwarded to the federation’s executive committee with recommendations. The executive committee will take then take the final call,” Thapa said.
The Indian team is scheduled to play matches in the Kings Cup on June 5 and June 8, and a preparatory national camp will be held under the new coach in the third week of May. The Kings Cup will be the new coach’s first assignment.
Owing to the Indian team’s spirited showing in the AFC Asian Cup and a run of 13-match unbeaten streak prior to that, more than 250 candidates, including some top names from Europe, have applied for the job since Stephen Constantine resigned.
The list included the likes of France’s World Cup winning coach Raymond Domenech, former England managers Sven-Goran Eriksson and Sam Allardyce.
These are pro-licence holders with national team experience in major global events like the World Cup, and their salary was a major issue of deliberation in the first meeting of the technical committee, when it scrutinised around 40 candidates for the vacant post.
The 58-year-old Ericson, who briefly managed Sweden’s national team in 2016 besides being at the helm of its U-21 set-up for more than six years, likes his teams to be configured in a 4-3-1-2 formation.
Ericson, during his playing career, turned out for Swedish sides Aby IF, FK Kick and IK Sleipner.
Good record
Spain’s Roca took Bengaluru FC to the AFC Cup final in 2016 in his first few months in charge, before helping the club win the Federation Cup and Super Cup, in addition to finishing runner-up in the club’s first ISL season in 2018.
The 56-year-old Roca has previous experience as an assistant to Frank Rijkaard at Barcelona, and also worked in the support staff of both Galatasaray and the Saudi Arabian national team.