Who Is Oscar Bruzon? East Bengal's new head coach

Oscar Bruzon has past work experience in India.

East Bengal FC have roped in Spaniard Oscar Bruzon as their new head coach after a rocky start to the 2024-25 Indian Super League (ISL) season. With the Red & Gold Brigade at the bottom of the table with four losses in as many games, they’ve brought in Bruzon to help fix their problems and ensure that the team can bounce back from the poor beginning.

Bruzon will replace Carles Cuadrat, who spent just over a season in charge of the club. Fortunately for the Red & Gold Brigade, Bruzon has a wealth of coaching experience as he’s been into football coaching for over 15 years now and has been involved with football for over three decades.

The 47-year-old had played at the professional level in Spain for many years and even played for Celta Vigo’s reserve team. Bruzon will be tasked to fix the ongoing issues within the squad and get East Bengal performing in a better way, which includes playing a more attractive style of football, going forward.

The Spaniard has valuable experience in winning championships at the domestic level and has worked in Indian football in the past as well. Here we will delve into the career of Oscar Bruzon and what can be expected of him as East Bengal’s head coach.

Who is Oscar Bruzon?

Oscar Bruzon is a 47-year-old football manager who has taken up the role of East Bengal’s head coach until the end of the 2024-25 ISL season. His contract might be extended if he can help the squad play to their fullest potential, win a trophy, and go deep into the ISL knockout stages.

Bruzon started his coaching career at 30 when he took over the youth team set-up of Spanish side Areosa. He has also worked as a youth coach for Celta Vigo and has a lot of experience knowing how to help young players develop properly and integrate them into his first-team set-up.

Fortunately for the Kolkata side, Bruzon also has in-depth knowledge of how football in Asia and India. He has worked as an assistant coach for Mumbai City FC (in the 2015-16 season) as well as a head coach for Sporting Clube de Goa and Mumbai FC. He even worked as an assistant coach for Spanish side Mallorca under Fernando Vazquez in the 2016-17 season.

Work Experience

Bruzon spent the first five years of his coaching career as a youth academy coach in Spain. But after doing some impressive work as Celta Vigo’s youth coach, he was roped in by Sporting Clube de Goa in 2012. In his first season in charge, the Spaniard helped his side win the 2012-13 Goa Professional League title over the likes of Dempo and Churchill Brothers.

He got his side to win nine of their 13 matches, only losing on one occasion and scoring 33 goals! Under him, Sporting Goa finished in fifth place in the 2012-13 I-League campaign. Bruzon’s reign as Mumbai FC’s manager wasn’t that memorable, but he started impressing after leaving India.

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He had a brilliant one-season reign as New Radiant FC’s head coach in the 2017-18 campaign. Bruzon helped them win the Dhivehi Premier League, Maldives FA Cup, and President’s Cup in his first season as well as the Charity Shield. New Radiant won 13 of 14 matches, only losing once, and scored 44 goals!

Bruzon left New Radiant to take up the Bashundhara Kings head coach role in 2018. He would enjoy four memorable years with the Bangladeshi heavyweights, in which they won four Bangladesh Premier League titles under him – including three straight ones from 2021-23. They also won the Federation Cup title twice and the Independence Cup once.

The Spaniard also has quite a history of facing Mohun Bagan. His Bashundhara Kings side defeated the Mariners at home last season and held them to a draw in the AFC Cup last season. They also finished joint in points in the 2022-23 AFC Cup group stages, with the Mariners prevailing thanks to their superior goals.

Philosophy

While some East Bengal fans might’ve been underwhelmed by Carles Cuadrat’s defence-first approach at times, that same thing is unlikely to be repeated with Bruzon. The Spaniard is very much someone who loves watching exciting attacking football and tries to implement that same mentality within everyone else in the club he’s working with.

In his six years in charge of Bashundhara Kings, Bruzon was able to prove that perfectly. The Bangladeshi side didn’t just win four league titles but thrilled fans with their fearless attacking style. Bashundhara Kings won 120 of 151 matches in which the Spaniard was in charge, losing on just 15 occasions. They averaged nearly three goals per game under him, showing just how much Bruzon loved pushing his side forward to create more and more goal-scoring chances.

The 47-year-old mostly likes to line up his side using the 4-3-3 system, where the midfield trio comprises one deep-lying midfielder operating in a number six role and two energetic number eight options who are encouraged to wander forward to pressure the opposition backline. He also likes his wingers to be inverted and drift more into central areas, which allows them to open themselves up in more goal-scoring positions – with the full-backs being encouraged to overload the wide areas with overlapping runs.

Bruzon also likes to play a 3-4-3 formation on occasion if need be. This of course gives his side an extra bit of defensive sturdiness thanks to the three centre-back system. In this system, the midfielders mostly command a deeper area – something which allows the wing-backs and the three forwards to run riot in the front line.

Bruzon’s teams’ fearlessness was depicted in Bashundhara’s heroics in the AFC Cup against Mohun Bagan Super Giant last season. They took the fight to the Mariners in both games, even at the Salt Lake Stadium, tormenting them on swift breaks and winning key duels to neutralize the Kolkata heavyweights from playing their natural game. As a result, Bruzon’s side defeated the Mariners and even took a point from the trip to the Salt Lake Stadium – showing he has what it takes to defeat Mohun Bagan on big occasions.

East Bengal fans will hope that Bruzon can perfectly implement his style and vision into the squad once he takes over the unit. If the players give their utmost for the mentor and if he is allowed enough time to impress, East Bengal could become a menacing side to play against in the ISL.

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