The technical committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has shortlisted three names for the role of India’s senior football team’s coach.
Khalid Jamil of India, Anglo-Cypriot and former India coach Stephen Constantine and Slovakia’s Stefan Tarkovic, who guided his nation to the Euro 2020 finals, are the three who have been recommended by the IM Vijayan-headed technical committee to the executive committee. The latter will take the final call.
“We sifted through 163 CVs that came to us and decided on three names. While Khalid and Constantine are known names in the Indian football circle, Tarkovic has done wonders with Slovakia and Kyrgyzstan,” someone in the know of things said on Wednesday.
“Managing a national team is different from a club assignment. Tarkovic has the experience of guiding lower-ranked teams to great success, and hence we thought he should be on the list,” he added.
The technical committee had met virtually, which was also attended by Sabir Pasha, technical director of the AIFF and Subrata Paul, the national team director.
Khalid, who manages Jamshedpur FC, is a frontrunner for the post as the technical committee has always preferred an Indian coach for the job. Former coaches Armando Colaco and Bimal Ghosh, who are advisors to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey, have always rooted for an Indian.
