The All India Football Federation has been recommended to pick one among Khalid Jamil, Stephen Constantine, and Stefan Tarkovic for the vacant men’s senior national team head coach job.
At a virtual meeting on Wednesday, the IM Vijayan-chaired committee segregated the list of Indian and foreign applicants before identifying those who would be considered for the job.
Once the federation had accepted Marquez’s resignation at its executive committee meeting on July 2, and invited applications on 4th July, 170 coaches had sent in their resumes at the Football House.
Two months ago, Khalid had declined to take charge of the U-23 men’s national team as he has an existing two-year contract with Jamshedpur FC.
But he was persuaded to apply after his and Constantine’s names were recommended to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey by his advisors, renowned coaches Bimal Ghosh and Armando Colaco.
The technical committee had earlier voiced their preference for a home-grown man to be in the hot seat this time, which would ease the burden on AIFF’s coffers stretched by a $400,000 payout to Marquez’s predecessor Igor Stimac.
Thus Bengaluru FC assistant coach Renedy Singh’s name was also discussed as he is into active coaching, unlike Sanjoy Sen, who has been without a job after guiding Bengal to their record 33rd Santosh Trophy title last year.
