It came as a pleasant surprise for the All India Football Federation (AIFF) when Spain’s World Cup-winning midfielder Xavi Hernandez figured among those who applied for the position of India's head coach, but the AIFF was unable to process his application for reasons other than sports.
It is learnt that Xavi "sent an email from his own account" to apply for the post. However, the AIFF could not go ahead with the processing of his application as the costs involved in recruiting one of the world’s finest midfielders was way beyond the federation's budget.
"Yes, Xavi applied for the job of the Indian senior men's team football head coach. He has himself mailed his application to the people in the technical committee, and it looks like he was very much interested in the job. However, those tasked with the responsibility of recommending the short-list of coaches to the executive committee for final approval federation know that it's difficult," an AIFF functionary said.
The experienced Anglo-Cypriot Stephen Constantine, Stefan Tarkovic of Slovakia and home-bred Khalid Jamil are among three candidates shortlisted by the technical committee of the AIFF. Jamil seems to be the frontrunner to replace Manolo Marquez, who quit earlier this month after a string of poor performances by the national team. The side’s FIFA ranking has plummeted to 133, the lowest in nine years.
The AIFF had invited applications for the top job on July 4 with July 13 as the deadline. It received 170 applications, which included big names like former Liverpool stars Robbie Fowler and Harry Kewell.
Besides the World Cup triumph of Spain in 2010 and Euro title victories in 2008 and 2012, 45-year-old Xavi has won five La Liga titles, three Copa del Rey trophies and three UEFA Champions League trophies for FC Barcelona, including two continental trebles in 2008-09 and 2014-15. Xavi's last coaching job was at FC Barcelona, where he was in charge from 2021 to 2024. Before that, he was managing Qatari club Al Sadd from 2019-21.
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