The All India Football Federation’s technical committee on Monday interviewed the three short-listed candidates for the post of technical director and recommended the names in order of their preference to the executive committee to make the final appointment, PTI reported.
The three candidates interviewed were Gaioz Darsadze of Georgia, Romanian Doru Isac and Jorge Castelo of Portugal.
“We interviewed all three on Monday and we have marked our preferences as one, two and three and have recommended them to the Executive Committee to make the final appointment,” technical committee chairman Shyam Thapa said.
“The AIFF will now talk to each of them, regarding the salary and other terms and conditions to choose the suitable among the three. I believe the announcement will be made in two or three days,” said the former India international.
Interestingly, Romanian Isac, who once served as assistant coach to Arsene Wenger at Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan, was interviewed via skype from the Indira Gandhi International Airport after he faced some visa issues while arriving in New Delhi.
“He [Isac] came to India to have a face-to-face interview but could not come out of the New Delhi airport. He thought it was visa on arrival but he must have faced some issues. So, we arranged a skype interview from the Delhi airport,” Thapa said.
Isac is currently working as sporting director at Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos. “The other two candidates did not come to India and they were also interviewed via skype. The Technical Committee members asked a lot of questions to all the three. I feel all are good but we have to mark out first, second and third choices. We have done that and it is for the AIFF Exco to do the appointment,” he signed off.
Darsadze has worked as head coach of Georgia’s under-17 team and also managed the Georgia national team in 2005 before being made coaching education director at the Georgian Football Federation.
Castelo, a PhD in Sports Science from the University of Lisbon, has served as assistant manager of Portuguese sides like Benfica and Sporting CP. He has a vast experience in Portugal’s top flight football and has assisted the likes of Sven-Goran Eriksson, Carlos Queiroz. He was with Shandong Luneng – a first tier club in China – in 2016 as an assistant to former Brazil coach Mano Menezes.
The high-profile post has been lying vacant for nearly two years after Australian Scott O’Donnell left the job. Besides Thapa, Monday’s meeting was also attended by AIFF General Secretary Kushal Das, I-League CEO Sunando Dhar, Technical Committee Deputy Chairman Henry Menezes, members Ishfaq Ahmed, Pradip Datta, Prosanto Banerjee, G P Palguna and Sundar Raman.
