A self-confessed fan of Pep Guardiola, Roger Lamesa Grau is a long way from his home in Catalunya, Spain. For a 26-year-old man so far away from his native land and working in a country where football isn’t exactly the premier sport, the IFA Shield victory of his FC Pune City was as emotional as they come.

A convincing 3-0 victory over Mohun Bagan, his opposite number and Indian football veteran Jo Paul Ancheri, was enough to move Grau to tears. The young Spaniard has high praise for his FC Pune City, which became the first ISL team to win the prestigious IFA Sheild. “These players are 18-19 [years old] and are more like my brothers than my charges,” he said. “[Bagan] are a very good team and the [Pune] team did really well in beating them so convincingly on their home turf.”

The IFA Shield this year featured the best youth teams in the country, with the participation of the Tata Football Academy, the ever-impressive Minerva Punjab academy, the AIFF Elite academy and the Kolkata giants.

While Pune City’s senior team have failed to make the playoffs even once in their three seasons, their youth teams have done reasonably well at all age-group tournaments. They had won the Goa Super Cup in March before their big victory in Kolkata.

Grau said that he had warned his team of the overwhelming crowd support in favour of Bagan before their first match. Pune played two matches against MB: one in the group stage and then the final.

“We showed we were mentally right for this competition,” said Grau. “In my opinion, the group-stage match [which finished 1-0 in favour of Pune] was even better than the final. We were not conceding but we were suffering a lot due to their slick ball play, and we had a lot of dangerous fouls to our name.”

Gani Ahmed Niggam, who scored two goals in the final and four overall, came in for special praise from the coach. “He is a very good goalscorer, very intelligent and fast but he was injured before the tournament. I told him, this is competition football, you have to forget pain and injury. He finished 90% of chances which came to him inside the box.”

The Catalan is very much immersed in the school of football associated with the region. “A possession style approach is what I prefer,” he said. “We started playing 4-3-3 after having played 4-4-2 before. At senior levels, they may other styles such as long ball but at U-23, U-19 and U-18 level, they should play with the ball at their feet. A possession based game means that the player is thinking about the game all the time.”

Grau illustrated his focus on the mental aspect of the game too. “The captain’s role is rotated as everybody is passionate and different,” he said. “We have players from North-East, Punjab, Kerala and it has been a very long and difficult situation. We have to keep everybody motivated.”

The team were in trouble in the semi-final against the AIFF academy, Grau said. Down by a fifth-minute penalty and having missed a penalty of their own, the Pune City boys came back in the second half before taking it to penalties. “I have told my squad that penalty situation is not good and if possible, to finish the game before that,” he said. “Thankfully, we came through the shootout.”

Grau is part of a large Spanish contingent at the club with compatriots Jesus Tato, Pitu and last year’s first-team coach Antonio Habas a part of the Pune City project. Young winger Ashique Kuruniyan also spent some time at Villareal.

“He’s not at the ISL level quite yet, but Jerry Lalrinzuala showed that youngsters can play in the ISL,” Grau said. “He will play with the reserves and in the I-League till he’s a 100% ready to start for the first team.” Pune City will field their second squad in I-League division 2 starting this term.

Grau said his decision to get into management was inspired by former Barcelona and current Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola. “When I was 16, I decided to follow Pep’s way after watching videos of him,” Grau said. “He was just breaking out with Barcelona’s first-team and I decided that there was a whole world of football apart from being a player. So I got into the business at 17, got my first coaching badge at 19 and had a Uefa Pro License by the time I was 23.”

The Catalan also rates Paris Saint-Germain manager Unai Emery, and Espanyol head coach Quique Sanchez Flores as two of his biggest influences. “PSG didn’t have the best of seasons. But Emery, he started from the second division and is one of the good coaches in Europe.”

Prior to managing Pune City, Grau led the Lleida Esportiu team into the first division of the women’s league in Spain before taking up an offer with Arsenal Soccer Schools, India. He ended on a sombre note prior to leaving on vacation to Spain. “It is very hard to live away from home and not know exactly what the political situation back there is like,” he said, referring to the impening Catalan referendum on October 3.

“It is even harder to say goodbye to my young brothers,” he added, referring to his team which overcame the best youth sides in the country.