Varun Tripuraneni explains Hyderabad FC's partnerships with Borussia Dortmund, Marbella

The Nizams' owner felt they were lucky to find Manolo Marquez as Albert Roca's replacement.

Hyderabad FC displayed much promise in Indian Super League (ISL) 2020-21 season, finishing just below the playoffs spots. A relatively new team at the league, which explains why fans are eager to see if they can repeat their heroics in the 2021-22 season. Khel Now spoke with the club's owner, Varun Tripuraneni, who opened up on a host of topics including the previous season, transfers and partnerships in an hour-long chat.

While the first part of the interview was about how the Nizams worked during the 2020-21 season, the second part is about the club's partnerships and the work done by head coaches Albert Roca and Manolo Marquez. Varun Tripuraneni began by speaking about Hyderabad FC's partnerships with Borussia Dortmund and Marbella, highlighting the key points of both partnerships.

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"The two partnerships we have - with BVB and Marbella - are different from each other and have completely different targets. Given the current scenario, we haven't been able to do much but both our partners understand that fully," he said.

"They're two completely different partnerships. The one we have with Dortmund focus on the grassroots level and particularly coach education. The latter is one key area that we feel should get a lot of importance. With Marbella, we have a partnership that has a lot of relevance with the ISL and our first team."

Partnership with Borussia Dortmund

Football fans already know how good Borussia Dortmund are, when it comes to youth development. The idea to partner with them came naturally to Hyderabad FC's management, said Varun.

"With BVB, we were looking at their involvement and expertise completely at grassroots level and youth development. There's nothing connected to them and our first team, at least for now," he explained.

"What we saw in our first season was some massive interest at the grassroots level. The participation levels were extremely high and it led to us feeling that we needed a strong partner that had expertise in the area. As you know, Borussia Dortmund are well-associated with youth development and hence we decided to connect with them.

"Since we were starting from scratch, we wanted someone to come in at that stage itself. We didn't want to start something, then have someone come in and maybe propose a different model.

"Borussia Dortmund are a well-known brand across the world. We'll start doing lots of activities with them via digital media over the next couple of months. Obviously, the more effective way for this partnership to flourish would've been them being in Hyderabad and working with the kids and coaches, but that's not possible right now," he further added.

Partnership with Marbella

Prior to the Nizam's announcement of their partnership with Marbella FC, very few Indian football fans knew the Spanish club. Our interaction with Varun Tripuraneni showed that the Nizams have done their homework on this and very well too.

"Marbella have got some of the best training facilities in Europe. Some of the top clubs in the world use them for pre-season and in the winter break. They also play in the Segunda B Division - if you look at the ISL, there are a lot of players who have experience playing in that league, or in Spain in general. So, from that point of view, we felt it's a good fit for our first team," he quipped.

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"As of now, we can't use those facilities given the circumstances - but the idea was really for some of our players to train there during the off-season. And by that I don't mean just the first-team players, because we will reserve some of those slots for the second-string team and for every age group in the youth teams as well.

"We were also going to explore the possibility of players from that league to play for us in the ISL. But again, just from how the situation has been since we signed the partnership, it's been extremely slow.

"Marbella were extremely close to getting promoted last season. Working with them gives us a good opportunity to improve our own players," he further added.

Exit of Albert Roca, arrival of Manolo Marquez

Albert Roca set foot in India in 2016, when he became the head coach of Bengaluru FC, who were then playing in the I-League. He stayed on with the Blues till 2018 and the club had gained entry to the ISL by then.

In January 2020, Roca was appointed the head coach of Hyderabad FC. The Spaniard, however, could not lead his new club in the top-flight league, as Ronald Koeman and FC Barcelona came calling. In August, he joined the La Liga giants as their fitness coach, which was followed by the appointment of Manolo Marquez at Hyderabad FC.

"Well, it was definitely tough, especially because of the timing of Roca's move away from us. It happened just before everyone planned to assemble for the pre-season. I think there were both good and bad effects to that. The timing really didn't give us much time to think, we had to move quickly," Varun Tripuraneni said.

"Normally, we would've had to go through a long list of coaches, examine their profiles in detail, make a shortlist, conduct interviews and so on. With Roca's departure, we couldn't afford to do that. So we're, in a way, lucky that we got Manolo Marquez's profile very quickly.

"Usually, it's good if you can spend a little more time with the coach, understand his philosophy and so on. With Manolo, we had only about two detailed conversations before terms were agreed and the contract was signed.

"Given the time constraints, we also had to hire someone who could continue with a system that we'd already begun putting together. Manolo was quite understanding, he knew our situation and that we'd already almost built a squad with domestic and foreign signings," he went on to say.

Varun also busted a popular myth - that Roca and Marquez are related. "They're not related. I think they've met only once or twice before. If I'm not wrong, our assistant coach once organized a camp and that's where they two met first," he revealed.

First impressions on Manolo Marquez

"Manolo Marquez and Sujay Sharma, the club’s Director of Football were in touch with each other on a regular basis. As soon as he signed, he went through our domestic players' videos that we shared with him. Now, when I look back, I understand that he was actually spot on with most of his observations back then," the Hyderabad FC owner revealed.

"An example would be Akash Mishra. I hadn't seen much of his performances from the past - just a few highlights from his Indian Arrows days is all I remember watching. But the first name that Manolo had in mind after watching the players' videos was his.

"He went on to say that Mishra will be a very good full-back and that he will play for India in the next few years." As destiny would have it, the youngster has already represented the Blue Tigers following a remarkable campaign in ISL 2020-21.

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"Manolo spoke extensively about Hitesh Sharma and Souvik Chakraborty as well. It was a good start and all this was before he actually came to India. We knew soon that we've found a good coach, so we started hoping that we would have a good season. In the end, we had a fine campaign in ISL, so all's well.

"But yes, just that transition (from Roca to Marquez) was at a tough phase. However, I think everyone played a big part to make it smooth, including Roca himself - as he took the time to explain to the new coach why every new signing was made and the best ways to work with them," Varun Tripuraneni concluded.

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