Indian Football team coach Igor Stimac: 3 things to know about India’s new Croatian head coach as AIFF recommended the former Croatian International for the job.
Croatia’s Igor Stimac flew to New Delhi to give the interview for the role of India’s national team coach only to be later chosen by the committee for the role.
Indian national team was looking for a new coach since Stephan Constantine’s departure in January. Since then , AIFF received 250 applications for this role.
Further they trimmed the list down to four candidates-Stimac, Albert Roca, Hakan Ericson, and Lee Min-Sung and the administration chose to settle with Stimac.
“The technical committee has chosen Igor Stimac as the Indian football coach. He gave a splendid presentation and his experience speaks volumes. Stimac has an impressive knowledge of Indian football and we found him as the perfect choice,” Shyam Thapa, chairman of the technical committee.
Therefore, the Sportsrush highlights ‘3 things to know about Igor Stimac.’
1. Coached Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic
Stimac, during his stint at the Croatian national team coached 12 players including Modric and Rakitic from the World Cup 2018 squad that went to Russia.
2. Part of Croatia’s golden generation
Stimac was a crucial part of the golden generation of Croatian national team that won the third place in the World Cup held in 1998. He featured in all of the matches played by Croatia in the tournament.
3. A place in Derby County’s all-time best XI
The former Croatian International also appeared in the fans’ greatest ever Derby County team in 2009. He was voted by the readers of the Derby Evening Telegraph.
How twitter reacted
Igor Stimac appointed as Indian football team head coach. Keeping all the conflicts in choices aside, let’s greet our new coach to the realm of so called ‘sleeping giants’. This is not going to be a easy go coach, be ready for it…🙌⚽️♥️#IndianFootball pic.twitter.com/eQkLpmGuUY
— Bluecoat (@Blue_coat_) May 10, 2019
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Guys lets start a boycott procession for our possible coach stimac as he is worst than constantine #stimac_not_for_india@fni @Akarsh_Official @WCBMumbai @WestBlockBlues @kbfc_manjappada @Supermachans
Because after seeing his last five year performance it will destroy our team— K Sarwar (@KSarwar4) May 9, 2019
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Igor Stimac to be the coach of @IndianFootball. Good job by @praful_patel and co. #StimacforIndia #IndianFootball
— FootyManiac ⚽ (@FootyManiac1) May 10, 2019
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Stimac & Hakan are the best profiles. Rocha manager for 5yrs @FCB?🙈🤣 He did 9games with Frank Rijkaard & 3games with JuanRamon that too as conditioning coach before getting sacked! What’s his total exp as manager in top tier? Mere 3yrs with 2yrs in India itself #StimacforIndia
— Aakash Pratap Singh (@AakashPratapSi) May 10, 2019
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What’s next for the Indian National team
India’s first assignment with the new head coach will be at the King’s Cup in Thailand, where the Blue Tigers will face Caribbean nation Curacao in the first match.
Also read: The Golden Age of Indian Football under Syed Abdul Rahim
