The popular discourse about the impact of Indian Super League usually revolves around the performance of Indian footballers in the competition and how the proximity to revered footballing figures can help the youngsters prosper. However, the Indian coaches who are also part of the glitzy carnival of football receive far less attention, even though those professionals who work as assistants to the gaffers remain very important components of their teams.
Despite their inability to hog the limelight, these young Indian tacticians keep on playing a varied set of roles. They are usually noted former players or aspiring young coaches, trying to carve a niche in the overcrowded sphere of local coaches who have already earned their licenses but do not have enough opportunities to work in top-flight football.
Assistants taking the calls
Defending champions Chennaiyin FC chose to sign former India international Syed Sabir Pasha as the assistant coach, who hails from the city the club is based in. A regular member of the national squad from 1993 to 2001, the former Indian Bank striker is best remembered for his goal against Bangladesh in the 1995 SAFF Cup final and against Pakistan in an unforgettable 5-2 victory in the 1999 SAFF Cup. Very recently, Pasha, who is the only assistant coach on this list who holds a pro-license, also made the calls from the dugout against Mumbai City FC with head coach Marco Materazzi banned but like most assistant coaches, chose to toe the lines of his boss while facing the media.
Ishfaq Ahmed, on the other hand, is a powerful figure in the Kerala Blasters dressing-room. After being picked up in the third round of domestic drafts ahead of the inaugural edition, the Kashmiri footballer has seen his responsibilities growing. This year, he was in charge of signing the domestic players, even before Steven Coppell took charge. He remains the only Indian with the player-cum-coach role even though his opportunities to take part in action have been rather limited.
Renedy’s second stint
Renedy Singh, arguably the best Indian midfielder of the last two decades, enjoys almost similar responsibilities at FC Pune City, even though he did not attend the press conferences when Antonio Lopez Habas was banned. However, he played a key role in giving the squad a finishing touch after Habas convinced a number of former Atletico de Kolkata players to follow him to the Deccan city.
The case is slightly different at Delhi Dynamos, where Shakti Chauhan, a former Tata Football Academy coach takes care of the age-group sides and also sits on the bench during the ISL matches. He, however, does not have much decision-making power in the signing of players as the team took help of former Bengaluru FC assistant coach Pradyum Reddy on that front. Raman Vijayan, a former India international is also part of the coaching staff and being a close confidante of president Prashant Agarwal, has a good amount of authority in the outfit’s round-the-year activities.
However, the job descriptions of Alex Ambrose, Bastab Roy and Francisco Bruto Da Costa are not that exciting. Ambrose, who scored India’s first goal during the LG Cup win in 2002, failed to add any cohesion to the fragmented Mumbai City FC dressing-room last year, which crumbled under the inefficient handling of Nicolas Anelka. This year, he is back in the same role even though the club has seen a change in personnel in the summer.
Bastab Roy, on the other hand, is the perfect epitome of the “Bengali bhodrolok” trope and keeps himself light years away from any potential controversy. A very well-known figure in Kolkata football due to his involvement in youth development, the Atletico de Kolkata assistant coach’s main responsibilities lie in the franchise’s grassroots development activities.
Costa, a former assistant coach of the India Under-19 national team, is part of NorthEast United and is the most low-key figure among these eight men. FC Goa, on the other hand, do not have any Indian assistant coach at all.
An emerging trend
The trend is pretty clear. The franchises are eager to put someone on board to make the Indian players comfortable while they also ensure that the persona is not too strong to stoke fears of any impending ego clash. This means they have steered clear of the more successful Indian coaches like Derrick Pereira, Sanjoy Sen or Armando Colaco, with the sole exception being the case of Santosh Kashyap, who had a one-year stint with NorthEast.
The lack of decision-making power can act as a dampener, but to work as a deputy of someone like Habas or Gianluca Zambrotta or Coppell is a once in a lifetime opportunity. The problem however, is the lack of job openings for these prospective candidates. There is no chance Indian coaches will make the calls in the ISL in the near future, with the organisers of the league making some stringent rules regarding the appointments.
For the major portion of the I-League last year, eight of the nine participating teams had an Indian coach but the only foreigner, Ashley Westwood, who managed Bengaluru FC, walked away with the laurel. After the proposed merger of the I-League and ISL, that scenario is expected to change drastically and it will be a miracle to find an Indian head coach in the top-flight in foreseeable future.
The future, hence, is not very bright for these retired footballers who have chosen coaching as their career going forward. The stress on development has focused largely on the exposure of the players but not that much on that of the coaches.
Bengaluru FC official Parth Jindal had famously spoken about his dream of winning the AFC Cup with all Indian players, but nobody has dreamt about winning silverwares with an Indian in charge, it seems.
“All these people have come here to have fun and earn money. They have no pressure. I have nothing to learn from them,” said the outspoken Mohun Bagan coach Sanjoy Sen, earlier this year. While that certainly is far from the truth, it is also equally true that there is enough reason behind the growing frustration among local coaches. Indian football, as usual, is in denial mode.
Atanu Mitra has been covering Indian football for more than four years. He tweets @Atanu00.