How did Indian Football Team fare in FIFA rankings under Igor Stimac, Stephen Constantine and Manolo Marquez?

The Indian Football team reached a high of 96 in the FIFA Rankings under Stephen Constantine.

The Indian Football team have seen things go from bad to worse for them lately after suffering two back-to-back losses in June (2025). They lost to both Thailand and the AFC Asian Cup 2027 qualifier against Hong Kong, and are currently in third place in their Asian Cup qualifiers group.

To make things even worse, India are likely to be badly impacted by the negative results in the FIFA World Rankings. The Blue Tigers are poised to fall down to the 133rd position in the new FIFA World Rankings. This marks the first time that they have fallen to 130th place or worse since 2016!

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The loss to Hong Kong might end up being the final match in the Manolo Marquez era. The FC Goa manager will reportedly resign from his position soon, forcing the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to potentially looking for a new manager.

The loss to Hong Kong is to be Marquez’s final game in charge of the Indian football team and it would mark a pretty disappointing stint for the Spaniard. India were only able to win one of the eight matches under Marquez, losing three times in the period as well. Here we look at how the Blue Tigers have fared in the FIFA World Rankings under Marquez as well as his predecessors, Igor Stimac and Stephen Constantine.

Manolo Marquez

The Spanish gaffer was confirmed as the Indian Football Team head coach on 20 July, 2024. He came in as Igor Stimac’s replacement and assumed a unique coaching role of both the Indian football team as well as FC Goa! As predicted, that didn’t really work that well for Marquez.

India were only able to win one of the eight matches under him, scoring just five goals in the process. They’ve failed to score a goal in the last three matches under Marquez, with the disappointing results having an impact on India’s place in the FIFA Rankings too.

When Marquez took over the Indian Football Team, they were in 124th place in the FIFA World Rankings. They’ve only gone downwards under him. After India lost one and drew one of the first two matches under Marquez, they fell to the 126th position in the September 2024 World Rankings update.

They climbed to 125 in October, before falling to 127 in November again. India ended the year 2024 in the 127th place, but have now fallen down all the way to 133 in the World Rankings after losing the last two games.

Igor Stimac

Igor Stimac was appointed as the Indian Football Team head coach on 15 May 2019 – almost five months after Stephen Constantine’s exit. The Croatian gaffer took the helm of the Blue Tigers when they were sitting in the 101st position in the FIFA World Rankings.

The stint under Stimac was full of ups and downs for the Blue Tigers. They won 19 of the 53 matches under him, but the Croatian gaffer was able to help his side qualify for the 2023 AFC Asian Cup, win the SAFF Championship twice and the Intercontinental Cup once as well.

Stimac was, however, unable to help Indian Football Team get above the 101st position for the first few years of his stint. They kept going downwards and upwards in the first few years in charge. However, things started to change in 2023. After India won the SAFF Championship, Intercontinental Cup and Tri-Nation Series in 2023, they climbed all the way up to the 99th position in July 2023 for a really brief time.

However, things started going downhill soon after that. India kept falling downwards and fell all the way to the 117th position after the disappointing 2023 AFC Asian Cup showing. Stimac was relieved of his duties on 11 June, 2024 – with India sitting in the 121st position at that period.

Stephen Constantine

Stephen Constantine returned for his second stint as the India football team head coach on 15 January, 2015. At that point, the Blue Tigers were lingering at the 171 position in the FIFA World Rankings and looking down and out in the AFC scene.

Constantine, however, did an admirable job at steadying the ship and helping India become a more compact, stubborn side. His style of play wasn’t really admired that much by fans, but it was efficient and effective to grind out results.

In his second stint as the Indian Football Team boss, he helped India win the 2016 SAFF Championship and compete strongly against opponents. He even helped them to a 13 game unbeaten streak, which included 11 wins! India climbed all the way up to the 96th position under Constantine and he also helped the Blue Tigers qualify for the 2019 AFC Asian Cup.

Constantine stepped down from his position as the India football team head coach after the exit from the 2019 Asian Cup, at a point when India were sitting in the 97th place in the FIFA World Rankings. They have failed to better that position in the World Rankings in the six years since Constantine’s departure and now face an uphill task to get into the top-100 again.

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