Indian football: A crown of thorns awaits the successor to Manolo Marquez

The plot thickens... Who will be the next coach to the senior Indian football team, called the Blue Tigers, now that it’s out in the open that Spaniard Manolo Marquez has exited the scene. While there is a buzz that the All India Football Federation (AIFF) is opting for an Indian candidate after a long time, there could well be a twist in the tale with the entry of Spanish veteran Antonio Lopez Habas in the ring.

Habas, now 68, is a perfect example of being there done that in the context of Indian club football – having won the Indian Super League (ISL) thrice – with ATK Mohun Bagan in the inaugural edition in 2014, then again in 2019-20 and following it up with a ISL Shield with Mohun Bagan Super Giant in 2023-24. He had also guided new entrants Inter Kashi to the cusp of a I-League crown – while he also brings in the experience of managing clubs like Valencia & Celta Vigo.

In an international assignment, Bolivia were runners-up in the Copa America in 1997 under his guidance and in an interview with a regional daily, the taciturn coach has claimed that he is the best candidate for the job given his varied experience with Indian clubs.

The deadline for the applications is 13 July. Whoever comes in will have his task cut out to steer the Indian team into the finals of AFC Men’s Asia Cup 2027 in Saudi Arabia.

Manolo may call time on India stint after Hong Kong qualifier next week

It’s not going to be an open playing field though, as the name of Stephen Constantine, the British coach who has been in charge twice, is also doing the rounds.

Sanjoy Sen, a battle-scarred city-based coach who had once guided Mohun Bagan to a I-League crown and has strong credentials, also confided to National Herald that he would be in the running.

The new incumbent, incidentally, will be the third coach in little over a year’s time, as Marquez succeeded Croatian Igor Stimac — who was unceremoniously sacked in June 2024 after a mixed run for nearly five years. Marquez, under whom the senior team’s fortunes plummeted to a new low, winning just one of the eight games, was a reluctant starter and agreed to a strange clause of dividing his time between the international assignments as well as the ISL club Goa FC.

Barely two days back, Marquez revealed in a tell-all interview with Spanish daily Marca that he actually wanted to quit in April, but was persuaded by the federation bigwigs to stay on till June window.

There is now a three-month gap ahead India’s next qualifier against Singapore in October and truth be told, there is a great deal of uncertainty over the current dispensation under president Kalyan Choubey being not in office till then. The AIFF had copped enough flak for violating the agreement with Stimac by sacking him ahead of the term and then had to cough up a major compensation — an experience which saw them treading very carefully with Marquez.

Igor Stimac, former India football coachI said many times that you can bring (Pep) Guardiola or (Jose) Mourinho, the result will be the same

How much of a difference can a new coach, however tactically astute, make under the circumstances? “I said many times that you can bring (Pep) Guardiola or (Jose) Mourinho, the result will be the same,” Stimac, a stalwart defender and member of the third placed Croatia team in 1998 World Cup, said in an interview few months back.

The idea of trying to woo OCI footballers (Overseas Citizens of India) category — in a bid to try and bridge the gap in standards as a short term solution — received a push as the recently announced Sports Bill of the Union government says: “Whenever feasible, promising and prominent Indian origin athletes living abroad may be encouraged to come back and play for India at the international level.”

It’s a proposal which sounds good on paper and the AIFF chief says he has more than 30 overseas footballers keen on such a move, but it needs a major ratification of the citizenship rules. There’s no doubt that the job for the new coach, as of date, will not be easy!