Hyderabad FC appoints Manuel Marquez as new head coach
Hyderabad's preparation for the season was disrupted by Albert Roca's decision to vacate the role of the head coach to become FC Barcelona first team's new fitness coach.
Published : Aug 31, 2020 17:11 IST
Hyderabad FC (HFC) has appointed experienced Spaniard Manuel 'Manolo' Marquez as the new head coach for the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) season. “The 51-year-old, who previously worked at the helm in the Spanish La Liga and the Croatian top-flight, is signed up for one year and will be with HFC till the end of 2020-21 season,” co-owner Varun Tripuraneni said in a statement here on Monday.
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Hyderabad's preparation for the season was disrupted by Albert Roca's decision to vacate the role of the head coach to become FC Barcelona first team's new fitness coach.
Roca had signed a two-year contract with Hyderabad FC in January this year and though he only formally took charge of the side in June, he put in a request to be relieved of his duties following the Catalan giant's offer to join Ronald Koeman's staff. Varun said, “We’ve worked towards a unified goal over the last seven-eight months while building our team. It has been one of our top priorities to continue the good work that everyone has put in and we strongly believe that Manuel Marquez is the perfect choice to do that. “Marquez has the credentials, and more importantly the experience to fit into our club. He has consistently proven himself at various levels and we expect a seamless transition." For his part, Marquez says it’s a big challenge for him to join Hyderabad as it is set to begin the new season soon. “The club has already been preparing and working on a lot of things over the last few months so that makes it a comparatively smoother process for me to settle in,” he said after completing formalities. “Given that Hyderabad FC intends to follow the same philosophy which I've worked with over so many years, I believe there are common goals already present. Now it's just about hitting the ground running and imparting those ideologies to the players,” Marquez said. During his two-decade-long coaching career, Márquez has worked with the likes of PB Anguera, AE Prat, CE Europa, CF Badalona, RCD Espanyol B, UE Sant Andreu, and UD Las Palmas B in the Spanish league system. He took charge of La Liga side UD Las Palmas in 2017 before working with Croatian top-flight side NK Istra 1961 in 2018.