ISL 2024-25: 13 teams, one Indian head coach - just how Indian is the league?

The addition of Mohammedan Sporting from the 11^th edition of Indian Super League (ISL), which kicked off on a rainy evening in Kolkata on Friday, makes it 13 teams in fray. However, only club: Jamshedpur FC has an Indian head coach in journeyman Khaled Jamil while all other dugouts will have foreign professionals.

 ‘’We want to win the ISL. Our fans deserve it for the tremendous support they show every time,’’ Jamil said as he became the first Indian head coach to be offered a two-year extension till 2025-26. However, the man who shot to prominence after guiding an unheralded Aizawl FC to the I-League (the second tier) in 2016-27, had been a shinning exception.

 Well, are there not enough competent names in Indian football to be at the helm of at least a few others? It’s a point which has been deliberated time and again – alongwith the presence of an overwhelming number of foreign professionals as players (a team can have six of them on the roster) – but there cannot be a simplified solution to this.   

 In a well-meaning effort to address the anomaly, as also to oversee a crop of new Indian coaching talents who can match wits with the likes of a Jose Molina or Manolo Marquez in future, the ISL has made it mandatory to have an Indian assistant coach for all clubs from this season. The new rule says: ‘’All the teams must have an Indian assistant coach, holding the AFC Pro License (or equivalent). If the head coach is relieved from his position or suspended for certain matches, the Indian assistant coach will take over all head coach duties as the interim head coach,’’ the new rule stated.

An example in point is the presence of Gourmangi Singh, a midfield general and contemporary of Baichung Bhutia, who filled in for Marquez to oversee Goa FC’s preparations for ISL when the Spaniard was with the Blue Tigers for the recent Intercontinental Cup. Most see it as a welcome move to provide a window of opportunity to former Indian internationals to work as an understudy with the big names – to pick up the tactical nuances as well as the pressures of high stake ISL games, but uncomfortable questions linger on.     

 This brings back to the question of how ‘Indian’ is ISL? The same question also presented itself in the initial years of the cash-rich Indian Premier League (IPL), but it’s a no brainer that the world’s biggest T20 franchise league attracts the crème de la crème of cricketers and coaching and mentoring talents – while the same cannot be said about it’s counterpart in football.

This is not to suggest that the ISL has not had it’s share of top flight coaches over the years – from the iconic Zico in the early days to a Molina, Marquez, Carles Cuadret or Sergio Lobera in the current season. There are, in fact, six marquee names in the dugouts this time who have guided their clubs to a ISL title in the past:  Chennaiyin FC’s Owen Coyle (2021-22 Shield with Jamshedpur FC), East Bengal FC’s Cuadrat (2018-19 Cup with Bengaluru FC), FC Goa’s Marquez (2021-22 Cup with Hyderabad FC), Mohun Bagan Super Giant’s Molina (2016 Cup with ATK), Mumbai City FC’s Petr Kratky (2023-24 Cup with Mumbai City FC) and Odisha FC’s Sergio Lobera (2020-21 Cup and Shield with Mumbai City FC, 2019-20 Shield with FC Goa).

  Having tracked the journey of ISL, one feels that the driving force in the boardrooms of all franchises is to go for tried and tested names as head coaches – and no Indian (barring Jamil) has been able to instill that level of confidence to be bestowed with the responsibility. ‘’There is no doubt an obsession with the fair skin while looking for the head coaches, but then India’s overall standing needs to be blamed for this. For example, if a Indian footballer wants to ply his trade in Europe, it’s well nigh impossible to get a work permit for precisely this reason,’’ an ISL insider commented.

PK, Amal Dutta's days

 ‘’The same principle doesn’t apply when ISL hires overseas footballers and the club managements fall back largely on inputs of the agents for this – which has often backfired. When it comes to coaches, some of them have taken the clubs to glory and left a lasting impression on the minds of the fans,’’ he chipped in.     

 The art of club coaching has evolved in India over the decades – with the likes of the legendary P.K.Banerjee and Amal Dutta ruling the roost in the Seventies and Eighties, before the mantle passed on to the likes of Subrata Bhattacharya, Subhas Bhowmick and T. Chathunny who shepherded their teams to the I-League titles. However, when the ISL was unleashed upon the Indian football fan in 2014 with a star shower and entertainment quotient, the seniors were already on their way out and decks were actually cleared for foreign professionals to take over.

 The official reason which had been impeding the growth of former Indian footballers as coaches was their reluctance to undertake the formal AFC certificates – barring a few exceptions. A stunning example from Jamil’s Jamshedpur FC, however, can go a long way in changing the perception!