New Delhi: The All India Football Federation has been recommended to pick one among Khalid Jamil, Stephen Constantine and Stefan Tarkovic for the vacant men’s senior national team head coach role.
The AIFF’s technical committee sifted through 163 applications and hand picked one home-grown and two overseas tacticians to replace Manolo Marquez, whose departure was approved earlier this month.
At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, the IM Vijayan chaired committee, segregated the list of Indian and foreign applicants before identifying those who would be considered for the job.
Once the federation had accepted Marquez’s resignation at its executive committee meeting on July 2, and invited applications on July 4, a total of 170 coaches had sent in their resumes at the Football House.
Two months ago, Khalid had declined to take charge of the U-23 men’s national team as he has an existing two-year contract with Jamshedpur FC.
But he was persuaded to apply after his and Constantine’s names were recommended to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey by his advisors, renowned coaches Bimal Ghosh and Armandao Colaco.
The technical committee had earlier voiced their preference for a home-grown man to be in the hot seat this time, which would ease the burden on AIFF’s coffers stretched by a $400,000 payout to Marquez’s predecessor Igor Stimac.
Thus Bengaluru FC assistant coach Renedy Singh’s name was also discussed as he is into active coaching, unlike Sanjoy Sen, who has been without a job after guiding Bengal to their record 33rd Santosh Trophy title last year.
“It’s better to try out an Indian this time,” a person aware of the development said, reminding Marquez’s eight game reign that fetched only one win.
Constantine in contention, again
Since India could play in the September international window, Constantine is also in the fray as he has been in the job twice before and wouldn’t need much time to settle down in the challenging assignment.
The Briton’s name was discussed at the executive committee meeting and technical committee members also hold his ability to making do with limited means in high regard as he pulled India to 95 from 173 in FIFA rankings in his second stint (2015-2019).
In comparison, Stefan Tarkovic is a new entity altogether as he has no experience of coaching in India but has managed the Slovakian and Kyrgyzstan national teams in the recent past.
The 52-year-old though has been out of work after his June 2024, having managed five wins, four draws and nine losses in 18 matches for Kyrgyzstan in a one-year period.
Prior to his Kyrgyzstan stint, Tarkovic was at the helm of Slovakia for 22 matches from October 2020 to June 2022, winning eight, losing and drawing seven each.
“He has vast experience of working for national teams. Prior to being appointed as the full-time coach for Slovakia, he had worked with them in various capacities with them since 2013,” an AIFF source said.
“He was in the dugout when Slovakia played at Euro 2020. Since managing a national team is entirely different from coaching a club he is being considered.”
The executive committee is expected to finalise a name in the next few days.