When 55-year-old Spaniard Manolo Marquez was appointed Head Coach of the Indian men’s national football team in July 2024, his predecessor and outgoing national coach Igor Stimac had a message for him.
“Dear Manolo, Congratulations on being named the new India Head Coach. The journey won't be easy, but your experience with Indian players speaks for itself”.
Stimac was spot-on in both cases.
Football is a religion in my country, Spain, so I would probably have to speak from the date of my birth. My father and grandfather were crazy football fans. I was not a professional player, but I played in the third division. I started coaching at the age of 20 when I would train kids. Since I started so early, I’ve been fortunate to train players across all age categories, right from the kids to La Liga and even in women’s football with Españyol. I had brief stints in Croatia and Thailand before I came to India, and I have loved it here. The one thing that was not in my CV, however, was training a national team, and I am thankful for that opportunity now.
The beginning of his stint as India's coach has not been ideal, to be honest. India drew 0-0 with Mauritius in September 2024, lost 0-3 to Syria in the same event in September 2024, and drew with Vietnam in an international friendly in October 2024 followed by a 1-1 draw with Malaysia but maintained optimism about qualifying for the 2027 AFC Asian Cup.
We’re disappointed because we couldn’t win. But I am completely sure that the team will qualify for the Asian Cup in 2027:
Marquez has been coaching in India since 2020 and has been on the touchline for Hyderabad for more than 100 matches. The Spanish coach managed Hyderabad for three seasons and won the Indian Super League (ISL) title with them in 2022 before switching to FC Goa ahead of the 2023-24 season.
As per the deal with the All-India Football Federation (AIFF), Marquez will simultaneously continue to fulfill his club commitments till the 2024-25 season ends. With Team India now in the post-Sunil Chettri era, the national coach spoke exclusively about the national team’s challenges and the ongoing debate of whether ISL was really serving its purpose or not. Seven months into his job as national coach, Marquez, in an EXCLUSIVE interview, says his experience has been good.
Excerpts:
Q. Seven months into the job as Chief National Coach of India thus far, how would you describe your experience? A mixed bag?
Wow, seven months already, time flies. Yeah. No, my experience is good because I think that the team, in terms of football, was progressing. I remember my first FIFA window was in Hyderabad in the Intercontinental Cup. And practically without training sessions, we played the first game against Mauritius. And then against Syria was a difficult game, obviously, because they are a very strong team. But I think that after the third FIFA window, in Vietnam, in the second, and the last, again, at home against Malaysia, the team was better. I think that the team is improving. It's true that in the two last windows, we played only one game and we had more time for the training sessions and I think it was good for the staff and for the players to understand what we wanted.
Q. When you said we need to improve in everything, which areas is the team working on the most?
I think in football there are five things. One is attack, another is defence, another is the transitions, both attack-defence, and defence-attack, and the other is set pieces. The team that manages better these situations is a team that will be very competitive. When you say it looks easy, because you say attack, but the attack is built up, how you arrive at the opponent's box, how you finish the actions. Defense is only, obviously, it's not only the line of four or five, it's with the team.
Finally, it has to do with all the players who are on the pitch, to work in the same direction, to do the same things. Obviously, transitions, when you recover the ball, what you have to do, when you lose the ball, what you have to do, the team has to be organised. And obviously, it's set pieces in defense and attack. Practically it's the same job in every team. Then when I say areas to improve, it's about this. This is one of the reasons that we had more time or we asked for more time in the last FIFA window.
Q. You had said in an interview earlier that "the best players will have to play at the best level against stronger opponents. That is how you grow as a player. That is why more Indian players should play in the ISL." Is ISL really serving its purpose?
Yes, obviously if you want to improve your level you need to play against the stronger opposition. I can add not only ISL, I can add if they can go abroad even better. But obviously of course there are good players in the I-League. But finally, the best players are in ISL. The best competition in India is ISL. Then you need to play against the stronger opposition. For example, the foreigners in ISL are much better than foreigners in I-League.
And then you need to play against these kinds of teams because, it's the same that if you go abroad and your teammates are better than you, you will improve because finally, your level increases when the opposition is better. And this is what it is. I think, but this is not only in India. I think it's all over the world. To improve even in another profession, even as a journalist, I think when you are starting as a journalist, if you are with people with a lot of experience, good journalists, I think that your level will increase, because they will help you with their experience and you will be better. This is in every profession as a teacher, in a school, in every profession in the world.
Q. You have spoken about Indian players need to improve their mentality. So, how has your experience of working with Indian players both at club and national level? How difficult is the task?
Yeah, I say this because this is my fifth season in India, and I have worked with a lot of young players, with a lot of qualities. But sometimes when they struggle. OK, if I want you to understand me, for example, there is one set piece. One player who is good in deliveries, okay, if the first action is okay, usually the next action will be good also. If the first action is not very good, then the head starts to work in a bad way, and then the second is bad again, and the third sometimes is not like this. We need to understand that football is a game of mistakes. Without mistakes, every game would finish nil-nil. Then when you make a mistake, you have to be strong. Mentally, very strong. And this is the reason. He's very good technically, he's very good tactically, he's very good physically. But if his mentality is not the correct mentality and this guy doesn't arrive.
This is the reason I always speak this with the players in my team, in the national team. This is the reason that still Sunil Chettri is the best forward in Indian football. And today and this season again, he is showing this quality. Because it doesn't matter if he makes a mistake, he's thinking about the next. I remember how in one game he missed a penalty and immediately he had another chance. Then finally, the mentality is that you know that you will make a mistake, then okay, next action. Always the past is the past. You cannot do nothing with that action. You need to be ready for the next action in this case.
Q. What's your take on ISL? Do you think this tournament is enough to get the talent you are looking for?
The problem is not ISL. The problem is that the Indian market is not very big and the players are changing the team constantly. One thing that I believe a lot, if you check for example when we were champions with Hyderabad, I was three seasons with them. And 15 players were the same. Now, if you check the squads, you won't find one single squad that they have more than 10 players in the last three years, the same players, because they are changing constantly.
I think that this is not positive for Indian football, because I think that my feeling is that they need to improve and they can improve going abroad. But I can understand them because they are very comfortable. They are close to their country with their families, not very close, but in the same country. And then this is the reason that I feel it's very difficult. I think that in that situation maybe I would do the same. But sometimes you need to, if you want to improve, you need to be ambitious. And if you want to be ambitious, you need to go abroad to improve your level. That's all. But in terms of this ISL, yeah, it is a good competition in India. I am only always complaining about the fixtures, that everything is very late.
Q. Are FIFA and AFC doing enough, regarding India? What more do you think is needed?
Difficult question. Not only FIFA and the Asian Football Confederation. It's more about this - we played against Syria, and Syria was with I don't know how many foreigners. The goal that we conceded against Malaysia, the action was between one Brazilian and one Argentinian player. I think in my opinion, I know that every country decides their rules, I think this is not fair. I think that FIFA in this case, I think that they cannot allow these kinds of situations. But because finally, every country decides the rules.
For example, if you play for seven years in Malaysia, and you are from Argentina, Brazil, or another part of the world, you can play in the national team. In another country, if you have Syria, if you have a brother, son, mother, or grandfather, who was from Syria, you can play in Syria. And then I think that we don't play, all teams don't play with the same rules and this is not fair in a competition. Fair enough. But maybe in the future, if India wants to grow in this aspect, India should change. I don't know if they will do it or not. But because finally, it's not about now. No, I repeat that a lot of times it's not about the current national team. It's about the future. The current national team is what it is. These guys that are in the national team, are fantastic guys, but they already are there. It's for the next generations.
Q. The team has quite a few matches lined up for this year (2025), with matches against Maldives, Bangladesh, which is in Shillong next month, and Singapore, Hong Kong, etc. up ahead. What are your expectations from these matches? Team's aim for the season. What do you think?
Finally, there is one target which is to qualify for the Asian Cup. Despite all these things that I told you, finally, we are the team in Pot 1. Then we need to show that we are, theoretically, the favourites to qualify. We searched for a team like Maldives that can be similar game to the game that we will face against Bangladesh. And then, let's see, I think it's the first time that you have practically only one game in the FIFA window. Usually, there are two.
This time, except in October. Every time will be only one game in March, one game in June, two in October, then one in November, and one in March 2026. Big gaps between every game. Then the competition will be, I don't know, strange because, for example, Bangladesh has now stopped the league, they will do a training camp. We are in the middle of playing our championship. We have only, or we will have 10 days. In the next FIFA window, we will be practically without competition. Hong Kong will be finishing the competition. Every situation is different. But obviously, there are six games and six finals, and our target is to finish at the top of the group. And I think that we will get this aim.
