What will be Manolo Marquez's first games as Indian football team head coach?

Igor Stimac was sacked after a disappointing FIFA World Cup Qualifiers campaign

The Indian football team are set to enter a new era after the sacking of Igor Stimac, who managed the Blue Tigers since 2019. The team are set to start from scratch under the newly-appointed head coach Manolo Marquez in the coming months.

The 55-year-old Manolo Marquez was assigned the duties of the national team on July 20 this year after the AIFF sacked former Croatian coach Igor Stimac. The Spaniard will be guiding the Blue Tigers while simultaneously performing his current job as FC Goa’s coach until the end of the 2024-25 season. His appointment came after AIFF assessed 291 applicants for the role and carefully shortlisted 17 candidates before selecting him.

Manolo Marquez era

The Manolo Marquez era will start in Indian football with the fourth edition of Intercontinental Cup, hosted in Hyderabad. The other participating nations in the competition are Syria and Mauritius. The tournament will take place from September 2 to September 10.

The Intercontinental Cup will help the new head coach take the challenge to two opponents of significantly different ranks. Syria are way ahead of India in the FIFA rankings, sitting at 93 while Mauritius are way below the Blue Tigers, ranked at 179.

Manolo Marquez’s next task as Team India coach will take place on October 9, when they will lock horns with hosts Vietnam in an upcoming tri-nation series, where Lebanon will be the other participants. This game will be the first match of the tri-series.

Vietnam are currently ranked 115 while Lebanon are at 116 in the FIFA rankings. After a series of bad results in the recently-concluded FIFA World Cup Qualifiers (second round) and AFC Asian Cup, India have suffered a serious jolt in their rankings, dropping to 124.

India are now out of the FIFA World Cup 2026 qualification campaign, meaning there are no major competitions to fight for in the near future. However, this doesn’t make the new manager’s job easy, as he needs to start from scratch with the nation’s legend Sunil Chhetri retired, leaving a huge gap to fill in the forward line and leadership role. This is an area where the team have few able replacements. 

Circumstances like these will make Manolo Marquez’s job the toughest, but he surely has the platform to lay the foundation for a stronger Indian football team.

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