All India Football Federation (AIFF)
Over 250 coaches had applied to the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to become the new Indian national team coach and that number has been cut down to four coaches from around the world.
The four shortlisted coaches, who will be interacting with the AIFF Technical Committee next week, are Albert Roca (Spain), Igor Stimac (Croatia), Hakan Ericson (Sweden), and Min-Sung Lee (South Korea).
Albert Roca is known in India for his work with Bengaluru FC in both I-League and then Indian Super League. He has worked as assistant to Frank Rijkaard at FC Barcelona, Galatasaray and Saudi Arabia.
Igor Stimac has coached Croatia besides local clubs in Hajduk Split, Cibalia, NK Zagreb and Zadar, Iran’s Sepahan and Qatari club Al-Shahania.
Hakan Ericson has coached the Sweden Under-21s to continental success and is known to develop players.
Former international Min-Sung Lee has experience of coaching in his native South Korea and in the Chinese Super League.
The AIFF has picked their top contenders for the India job keeping in mind budgetary contraints, the applicants knowledge of Asian football and that the national team coach can contribute to the grassroots development program of the country.
Interestingly much more high profile coaches like Raymond Domenech (France), Sven-Goran Eriksson (Sweden) and Sam Allardyce (England) did not make it into the final round.