Why was Santosh Kashyap appointed as Indian Women's Football team head coach?

AIFF recently appointed Santosh Kashyap as head coach of the Indian women’s football team.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) recently announced the appointment of Santosh Kashyap as the new head coach of the Indian women’s national football team. Santosh Kashyap takes over the hot seat from the outgoing Langam Chaoba Devi who managed the Blue Tigresses for just seven games in 2024. AIFF decided to hand over the rein to Santosh Kashyap following a technical committee meeting last week.

The 58-year-old will be joined by Indian Women’s League (IWL) winning coach Priya PV as his assistant in the national team. Kashyap’s appointment comes as an urgent action from the federation who were not happy with Chaoba Devi’s performances. Under her, India failed to win the 2024 Turkish Women’s Cup followed by a defeat and a draw each against Uzbekistan and Myanmar.

A source close to the developments informed Khel Now that, “Santosh Kashyap was one of the four shortlisted personnel and he was the only one with no prior experience in women football, but was chosen to lead the Blue Tigresses based on seniority and exp compared to the other coaches,” 

It’s very interesting to note that Santosh Kashyap was the only one on the list to have no experience at all in coaching women’s football teams.

He was the head of youth development at Odisha FC before being a part of Air India, Mohun Bagan, ONGC, Rangdajied United, Royal Wahingdoh and also the likes of NorthEast United, Salgaocar, Mumbai, Aizawl and Chennaiyin FC. Kashyap has a mere 27.62 win percentage while coaching various clubs throughout the decade.

The other three candidates were:

Anthony Andrews

The Maharashtra-born coach is undoubtedly the most successful active Indian coach in women’s football. Andrews has led Gokulam Kerala FC to two IWL titles and finished as the runners-up once so far in his three-year stint with the Malabarians. He is a proven winner and has an impressive winning percentage of 84.46% at Gokulam in 46 games. 

Sajid Dar

Sajid Dar was also one of the candidates for the head coach role on the women’s team. He has prior experience managing the national women’s team and has good enough numbers to prove his credentials. He won the SAFF Women’s Championship and a gold medal at the 2016 South Asian Games. 

Ravi Babu

Ravi Baby was also among the candidates shortlisted for the head coach role. Babu has coached the Karnatak Football team at the Santosh Trophy. He also coaches Parikrma FC in the Bengaluru District Football Association (BDFA) Super division. One of his major achievements is certainly the Santosh Trophy triumph in 2023 in Saudi Arabia that ended Karnataka’s five-decade-long wait for the title.

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