Who is Manolo Marquez, the new Indian football coach from Spain?

The fate of Indian football will now rest with a Spaniard as the All India Football Federation (AIFF) has made up its mind about the replacement for Igor Stimac after a crucial executive committee meeting on Saturday, 20 July. The high-profile Croatian head coach was sacked last month following the Blue Tigers’ failure to make the third round of the 2026 Fifa World Cup qualifiers.

Manolo Marquez, a familiar figure in the Indian Super League (ISL) has got the nod ahead of Antonio Lopez Habas – the seasoned campaigner who won two ISL titles and one League Shield. Marquez, 55, has managed 90 matches in the ISL and established strong credentials in the Indian football ecosystem when he guided Hyderabad FC from being bottom rankers to the ISL trophy in 2022 in a space of two years.

The Spaniard, currently with Goa FC, is credited with contributing a significant number of players for the national team like Akash Mishra, Nikhil Poojary, Ashish Rai, Mohammed Yasir, Liston Colaco, Hitesh Sharma and Jay Gupta. Except for his debut (2020-21) season, his team has been challenged for the ISL Shield in three of his four seasons in India. While on debut he missed qualification by a whisker with Hyderabad, he finished second on the league table twice and third last season with FC Goa.

The executive committee meeting of the AIFF, which has garnered enough negative publicity after their unceremonious sacking of Stimac after five years, had been desperate to close the issue of the coach throughout July. Sources in the federation said out of 291 applications, they had shortlisted the likes of Manolo, veteran Habas who has won two ISL titles (one with ATK Mohun Bagan and another one with Mohun Bagan Super Giants last season) and Park Hang-seo on their long list before putting the seal.  

The other unfinished business the AIFF has is that of sorting out the Croat’s demand for full salary compensation till June 2026, as per his full tenure. The legal team of the federation is currently at work to resolve the issue.   

How strong is the candidature of Manolo? Unlike the high-profile Stimac who had been the central defender of the Croatia team which finished third in the 1998 Fifa World Cup, apart from being a former coach of his national team, the Spaniard had been more of a journeyman. A defender by trade, the Barcelona native turned out for various sides in the Spanish leagues, before hanging up his boots at the age of 28.

During his two-decade-long coaching career, Márquez has worked with the likes of PB Anguera, AE Prat, CE Europa, CF Badalona, RCD Espanyol B, UE Sant Andreu, and UD Las Palmas B in the Spanish league system. He took charge of La Liga side UD Las Palmas in 2017 before working with Croatian top-flight side NK Istra 1961 in 2018 and worked closely with a number of top La Liga coaches in current CD Leganes manager Javier Aguirre and former Barcelona and Real Betis coach Quique Setién.