ISL: Atletico de Kolkata announce La Liga winner Jose Molina as new coach

The champions of the inaugural edition of ISL and semi-finalists of the second edition, Atlético de Kolkata, have today announced the appointment of José Francisco Molina Jiménez as their Head Coach, for the third and upcoming season of the Indian Super League.

José Molina has represented his national side Spain at the 1998 World Cup, and two European Championships in 1996 and 2000. Molina's club career was intimately related with Atlético de Madrid, for whom he featured in 189 matches over a period of five years, playing as goalkeeper.

As a player, Molina went on to win the La Liga and Copa Del Rey titles with Atlético de Madrid in their famous 1995-96 season before joining Deportivo de La Coruña with whom he lifted the Copa Del Rey trophy in the 2001-02 season. Molina has previous managerial experiences with the likes of Getafe B, Villarreal C, Villarreal B, Villarreal, and Kitchee. In his short one year stint in Hong Kong (with Kitchee), Molina managed to achieve a remarkable domestic treble with the Premier League, League Cup and FA Cup, also guiding Kitchee to the AFC Cup quarter finals.

“I welcome José Molina into our Atlético de Kolkata family. Molina’s experience with leading clubs of Spain and other parts of the world makes him an ideal candidate to take our on field performance few notches higher in his forthcoming assignment. He will be instrumental in building the team’s strategy and help us select some good prospective footballers for the upcoming season. We wish him all the success and I am definitely sure that he will showcase the finest quality of football under his able guidance that has become synonymous to Atlético de Kolkata,” Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RP- Sanjiv Goenka Group and co-owner of Atlético de Kolkata, told the club's official website.