Igor Stimac to be appointed as head coach of the Indian football team

It seems that the All India Football Federation's (AIFF) long search for the next coach of the Indian football team has come to an end with former Croatian defender Igor Stimac being touted as the next gaffer of the Men in Blue. Stimac, who has previously enjoyed spells in England with Derby County and West Ham United during his playing days, is being recommended to succeed Stephen Constantine as the chief coach of the senior team.

Despite some criticism, Štimac managed to take the FIFA Ranking of Croatia national football team to the fourth position just behind Spain, Germany and Argentina respectively. Under his leadership, Croatia climbed five positions higher to be ranked number four in the world and then went on to impress in the 2018 FIFA World Cup where they made the finals and lost to France.

"We have chosen Croatian Igor Stimac from the interviews. Every committee member and AIFF members questioned him and got a satisfactory reply. His preparation for Indian football is impressive. He has knowledge about the country. He is good so we all have decided to appoint him as the new head coach.

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"The other candidates were also good. Swedish coach Hakan Ericson was also impressive. We also spoke with Albert Roca. We ultimately found Igor to be the best candidate out of these four," said Shyam Thapa, chairman of technical committee, told Goal.

AIFF general secretary Kushal Das spoke more about the selection process that the Indian governing body took in order to appoint Constantine’s successor.

"The selection process started a long time ago. We had 250 applications and they were divided into various pots. People with UEFA Pro License, people with UEFA Pro License plus national team experience and then the third pot was UEFA Pro License, national team experience and international experience. And the last one we kept was no national team experience but reasonably good club football experience.

"Based on that 24 names were initially shortlisted, then the technical committee further shortlisted it to 12 and then we asked them about their expectations, the budget, their availability. Based on that four names were shortlisted. The interviews were held today and they have recommended one name to the executive committee," Das told PTI sources.