Watching the players improve gave me the biggest satisfaction- Chennai City head coach Akbar Nawas

The 43-year-old lauded the effort put in by the domestic players in their title-winning campaign last season.

Chennai City FC secured their maiden I-League title on the final day of the league by defeating Minerva Punjab 3-1 and became the first club from Tamil Nadu to achieve the feat. Speaking on the season that went by, their head coach, Akbar Nawas heaped praise on his players and designated special attention to the local players and the development they went through.

The Singaporean tactician was quick to point out that the local players, especially those from Tamil Nadu found the going tough in the training sessions, but persistence led to the players hitting the right chords as the season gradually progressed.

Speaking in that context Nawas said, “To have raw talent at your disposal and build them to a different level was a challenge. But, at Chennai City, I increased the level of Spanish players. Because when you increase the level of foreign players, the level of your local players increases twofold”.

“The credit goes to Rohit (Ramesh). He asked me to try and work out if something could be done with Tamil Nadu players. He understood that I would like to pick players from across the country and didn’t pressurise me to include local talent. I could see he was really interested in the development of Tamil Nadu players,” Nawas further added.

The 43-year-old also praised the resilience shown by the local Tamil Nadu players by stating, “I wasn’t aware of Tamil Nadu football, but my philosophy is that every player can be coached. However, how far the player goes depends solely on him. With that mindset, we went ahead and built on the talent we had. Eventually, we exceeded our expectations.”

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The secret to Chennai City’s title triumph was the perfect synergy between their foreign and local players which not only developed the performances of the team, but led to exceptional individual growth of the players as well. Indian talents such as Ajith Kumar and Alexander Romario Jesuraj complimented the brilliance on display by foreigners like Pedro Manzi and Nestor Gordillo who were central to the successful campaign that saw Chennai City accumulate 43 points in total.

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“Watching the players improve gave me the biggest satisfaction from our title-winning season because I never believed I could build or improve them to this magnitude. In my coaching career, so far, usually the players improve by a level or two, not higher. But, players here improved multifold – that was my greatest achievement apart from lifting the trophy," Nawas concluded.

Chennai City, however, face an uncertain future. Despite being more convincing winners as compared to Aizawl FC and Minerva Punjab, the club stands at a crossroads and the possibility of playing second division football next season looms larger than ever, especially considering the uncertainty around the future of the I-League.