AIFF shortlists four candidates for the post of technical director

The appointment will be made at around the same time as the national coach.

Savio Medeira (right) has been the interim technical director since the departure of Scott O’Donnell (left) in 2017.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has shortlisted four candidates for the post of technical director and will make its appointment at around the same time as the national coach.

The four candidates are — Scott O’Donnell, Gaioz Darsadze, Doru Isac, and Jorge Castelo.

For the appointment, the AIFF technical committee, headed by former player Shyam Thapa, has been summoned for a meeting on April 15, 2019. “While most of the focus has been on the appointment of national coach, the AIFF is also set to name the technical director and this could happen around the same time as the selection of the national coach,” a well-placed AIFF source told PTI .

“The technical committee will be meeting in this regard next Monday and hold advanced talks on appointing the technical director and also the national coach,” he added.

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Explaining the rationale behind the appointment, a federation official said, “Our [senior] team showed a lot of spirit and fight in the AFC Asian Cup, nearly qualifying for the knockouts. It is important that the momentum generated by that showing is sustained, and that is why appointing a technical director alongside the national coach is the way to go.”

Savio Medeira, a former India player and coach, has been serving as the interim technical director since O’Donnell resigned in 2017. O’Donnell, the erstwhile coach of Cambodia, worked with the AIFF for five years but was the technical director for only a year. He was first appointed as the technical director for academies and coach education in November, 2011; at the time, Rob Baan was the technical director of the national teams. O’Donnell succeeded Bann in 2015.

Not much is known about the other three candidates in the fray.

Isac is a Romanian football manager and is currently working as sporting director at Yokohama F. Marinos. During his time at Nagoya Grampus Eight, a Japanese football club, he was the assistant of the legendary Arsene Wenger. Before he left Japan, Isac worked with football coaches Carlos Queiros and Bora Milutinovic.

Darsadze has worked as the head coach of Georgia’s U-17 football team and also managed the Georgia national team in 2005 before being made coaching education director at the Georgian Football Federation.