Panaji: The technical committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) rubbed their eyes in disbelief when they saw the long list of candidates for the India coaching job.There were the familiar names like former national team coach Stephen Constatine, Liverpool star Harry Kewell, former Blackburn Rovers manager Steve Kean, India’s own Khalid Jamil, and coaches like Kibu Vicuna and Eelco Schattorie, whose work is known in the country. But at the bottom of a list prepared by AIFF’s national team director Subrata Paul, there was Xavi Hernandez.Marked in green, the former Barcelona coach and legend, someone who made more than 700 appearances for the Spanish giants, was shown to have sent the application from his own email ID. Unlike other shortlisted applications, the contact number column was blank.“It’s correct that Xavi’s name was there,” Paul told TOI on Thursday. “The application was emailed to the AIFF.”According to sources, the technical committee did not consider Xavi for the final shortlist due to the high financial cost. As player, the Spanish midfielder enjoyed a historic career, winning the FIFA World Cup in 2010 and two European championships. With Barcelona, he became the symbol of the club’s possession-based style of football and won 25 trophies, which includes eight La Liga titles and four Champions Leagues.Xavi kickstarted his coaching career with Al Sadd in Qatar, then returned to Barcelona as coach, but left after guiding the club to two trophies in two and a half seasons in charge, including the 2022-23 La Liga title.“Even if Xavi was genuinely interested in Indian football and could be convinced to take up the job, we would need a lot of money,” said a member of the technical committee who attended the virtual meeting on Wednesday.In a previous interview with The Athletic, Xavi said he “sometimes (follows) the Indian League because many Spanish coaches are there.”The technical committee has recommended three names to the AIFF executive committee to replace Manolo Marquez, who quit early this month. Jamil is the lone home-grown coach in the list, which also has Constantine, hoping for a third stint with the national team, and former Kyrgyzstan and Slovakia head coach Stefan Tarkovic.The shortlist was finalised by the technical committee chaired by former India captain IM Vijayan. Paul, and technical director Syed Sabir Pasha, were also in attendance, while inputs were sought from Dronacharya awardees Armando Colaco and Bimal Ghosh, who are advisors to AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey.
