Welcome Khalid Jamil, the new Head Coach of the national football team. It is doubtful if any head coach of any sporting discipline in India could have come to the national scene at this juncture when uncertainty is what prevails all around! Indian football currently presents just this and nothing more. There is little to talk of Indian football at the present stage. Such is the desolation that any step even seemingly positive is a big moment as far as the sport goes. Where foreign coaches have one after another gone away in disgust or disappointment whichever way one looked at it, it now up to an native Indian to try and bring some sense to the settings. That is why Jamil’s coming in is a big step — but pity the man, for the task at hand is not easy, to put it mildly. After more than a decade, Savio Medeira was the last Indian coach to handle the national team back in 2011, another Indian has risen in the confidence of the powers that be and for good reason.

Indeed, it is so unfortunate that football should be in such a state of affairs. Where most other sporting disciplines, aside from cricket (ever the bright one), in the country have some good moments to show, football has just been yearning to regain at least some semblance of its past shine and glory but with little success in realising anything thus far. The last big let down came in the Asian Cup qualifiers when India was edged out by low ranked Hong Kong 1-0 in the away match. This was the team which India had thrashed 4-0 in its earlier meeting and here it stood absolutely dazed and hapless in the Kai Tak stadium in Hong Kong. It was a loss to a side ranked 26 slots below India and what is more it was India’s first loss to Hong Kong since 1993. India now has to ensure it does not lose in the next four outings to ensure a place in the 2027 Asian Cup competition.

There were enough reactions post that defeat. Coach Manolo Marquez’s communication with the team members lacked clarity was one thinking, and this had led to the team playing without a direction. The entire team was in a mess was the strong observation from a veteran legend Bhaichung Bhutia while some questioned AIFF”s offering of cash incentives to the team for a win and that only backfired with the team losing both its matches, against Japan and Hong Kong. Suffice to say, it was time for Marquez’s exit and so it had to be after all that happened. And, as it happened he had left a team, short of international exposure and technical ability.

It is one thing to keep reminding ourselves of the past, the fifties and sixties when India was the team to bet for in Asia. Under Coach Syed Abdul Rahim India excelled and even showed the mettle to reach the semi-final of the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne and India then was the first Asian nation to achieve that distinction. Why, his greatness was so far reaching that in recent times even a Bollywood movie came out to highlight Rahim Saab’s grand moments with Indian football. Well, all that is past but one never thought it would remain that way and not extend to current times. True big names in sports sometimes lose shine, like the West Indies in cricket and perhaps Brazil in football but where Indian football scene differs is the total lack of vision that had crept in to virtually send this sport in the country into a state of despair over the years.

Undoubtedly, it is going to be a big challenge for Jamil. But then much has been projected about Jamil’s ability and what stood out in this is his knack of bringing out the best from the limited resources in hand, a scene that depicts Indian football now. As a player, he had shone as a midfielder and that meant the team-thinker, whose commitment was par excellence. Mahindra United and Air India were the teams that moulded his playing skills and then came his big moment as a coach when he coached lowly Aizawl FC a historic I-League success in the 2016-17 season and that is considered a notable moment in Indian football. That established his reputation as one who can mould his team to bring off victories over formidable opponents.

Unlike his foreign predecessors, Jamil can be considered not new to the Indian football settings. He in fact is a product of the Indian system and to that extent he has soaked in all the predictables and unpredictables that keep coming up often and on. Not surprisingly then that Jamil had been ISL side Jamshedpur FC main coach when foreign coaches seemed more the norm in this League! Indeed the 48-year old will have his hands full but his fans and supporters would make everyone believe that he would be equal to the task. Sure enough, comparisons with the inimitable Rahim Saab would crop. Like the senior whose disciplinary moves brought the results, Jamil’s ability to understand players and their abilities could be the key.

At a time when the ISL seems in a state of uncertainty the focus will be on this Mumbaikar to give a new reason for football lovers to hope for better times for the sport in the country. A golden era we had once, lets pray for a new ‘modern era’ for football in India.