Three candidates submitted to AIFF by Technical Committee as per preference
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) technical committee, on Monday, submitted names of three candidates as per their preference to the executive committee for final appointment. The three candidates interviewed were Georgia’s Gaioz Darsadze, Romania’s Doru Isac, and Portugal's Jorge Castelo.
The post of the national men’s team coach and the technical director have been vacant for some time, with the latter one for over two years now since Australian Scott O’Donnell left the job. And while the coach’s position is yet to be finalized, AIFF are very close to fill the other position according to PTI.
“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, reported PTI.
“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.
Isac, who was strangely interviewed from the Indira Gandhi International Airport over Skype after he faces visa issues, has previously worked as the assistant coach of Arsene Wenger at Nagoya Grampus Eight in Japan and is working as the sporting director of Japanese club Yokohama F Marinos at the moment.
“He 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.
“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.
While Darsadze has previously been the head coach of Georgia’s U-17 team before going onto manage the national team in 2005 and thereafter staying the coaching education director at the Georgian Football Federation, Castelo has worked as the assistant manager in clubs like Benfica and Sporting CP. Castelo has been assistant to Sven-Goran Eriksson and Carlos Queiroz before working with Brazilian coach Mano Menezes in 2016 in Shandong Luneng in China.
Apart from Thapa, the 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.Â