ISL: Coaches with multiple stints with same Indian Super League club

The list features some of the eminent coaches of ISL.

Owen Coyle has surprised many with his decision to make a comeback to Indian football after taking up the role of the Jamshedpur FC head coach for the 2025-26 Indian Super League (ISL) season. The Englishman has fond memories of his time with the Men of Steel, having helped them win the ISL league shield championship in the 2021-22 season.

Coyle has now accumulated a lot of experience in coaching in the ISL, and he’ll also mark a rare occasion for having his second stint with multiple ISL teams as well. Over the course of the ISL, there have only been a few instances of head coaches having multiple stints managing a single club.

That has mostly been impacted by some good work that the coach showcased in his initial tenure, compelling the club to give the individual another shot at success in a secondary tenure.

Here, we look at four coaches to have had multiple stints with the same ISL club.

4. Khalid Jamil

Khalid Jamil has had to work extremely hard to reach the position of being the head coach of the India national team, but he’s earned an admirable CV in his arsenal. The 48-year-old boss earned his breakthrough as the Mumbai FC boss, before helping Aizawl FC win the 2016-17 I-League title as well.

The ex-India midfielder got his breakthrough in the ISL as the assistant coach at Northeast United in the 2018-19 campaign under Robert Jarni. However, Jamil would be their interim head coach in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 campaigns after the sacking of Robert Jarni and Gerard Nus.

Jamil became the permanent head coach of Northeast United before the 2021-22 season, after helping them reach the ISL playoffs in the previous campaign. Basically, he ended up taking up their head coach role on multiple occasions before permanently leaving the club in 2022, before going on to return to the ISL as the Jamshedpur FC head coach in 2023.

3. Josep Gombau

Josep Gombau made a pretty decent impact in the ISL after being roped in as the Delhi Dynamos head coach in 2018. He came to Indian football with decent experience behind him, having worked as the FC Barcelona youth coach for six years and also having stints at Adelaide United and Western Sydney Wanderers.

Gombau made Delhi Dynamos play some decent attacking football under him for the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, but a lack of consistency saw them only win 11 of their 37 matches under him.

Gombau was sacked by the club in 2020 but returned to Indian football two years later as the head coach of Odisha FC, who were repackaged from Delhi Dynamos. Gombau’s second stint with the ISL club was relatively better, as Odisha FC won 13 of their 26 matches under him and reached the ISL playoffs in the 2022-23 season – but the Spaniard was sacked by the club after the end of the campaign.

2. Owen Coyle

Owen Coyle might be set to have his second stint with Jamshedpur FC, but he’s already had multiple stints with another ISL clubs in the form of Chennaiyin FC. Indeed, it was the Marina Machans who brought him to Indian football in the 2019-20 season, and it also resulted in a lot of success.

Coyle transformed Chennaiyin FC into a well-oiled machine, helping them reach the ISL playoffs after managing a top-4 finish at the end of the league phase. Chennaiyin FC managed to defeat FC Goa in the semi-final by a 6-5 aggregate to reach the 2019-20 ISL final, where they lost to ATK.

Coyle left Chennaiyin FC to take up a role as the Jamshedpur FC boss in 2020, but ended up rejoining the Marina Machans in 2023. Coyle would have two more campaigns with Chennaiyin FC, but they failed to reach newer heights under him and couldn’t reach the playoffs of the 2023-24 or the 2024-25 ISL campaigns. The Irish gaffer has reached 104 matches coached in the ISL, mostly thanks to his multiple stints with Chennaiyin FC.

1. Antonio Habas

Antonio Habas remains one of the most decorated coaches to have worked in the ISL and he’s developed a special connection with Indian football since his first job as the Atletico de Kolkata head coach in 2014. He spent three years with the club, helping them win the inaugural ISL title as well.

Habas would return to the Kolkata club in 2019 and also carve a successful season for them.  Indeed, Habas helped ATK win the 2019-20 ISL title, defeating Chennaiyin FC in the final.

Incidentally, Habas was the first-ever coach for Mohun Bagan after they started playing in the ISL from the 2020-21 campaign onwards.

He returned for a second stint with the Mariners in the ISL in 2024, helping them win the 2023-24 ISL League Shield championship as well.

He’s ended up having multiple stints with the Kolkata club and garnered a lot of success as well, guiding his side to three ISL titles and also winning 52 of the 109 matches managed so far in the ISL.

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