Coaching national team black point in India: Marquez

Hindustan Times

26-07-2025

Kolkata: Manolo Marquez thought he knew football in India. And then the national team happened. Manolo Marquez. (PTI)
An ISL title followed by successive semi-final berths had made Marquez think that 'more or less I know Indian football'. By 2024, he also thought his 'capacity to improvise' was a lot better than when he first came to India as Hyderabad FC head coach in 2020. So, while on holiday in Canary Islands, Marquez applied for the national team's job after Igor Stimac was sacked. 'It was my dream,' he said.
Soon, it curled leading to the mutual separation with All India Football Federation (AIFF) earlier this month. In eight matches as India head coach, five of them against countries lower in the FIFA ranking, Marquez had one win, four draws and three defeats.
'My time with the national team was very bad,' he told HT in a virtual interview from Goa on Saturday. 'The national team job is a black point in my career in India.'
There were mistakes, he said. In his first press conference as India coach, Marquez said he had spoken of the need to find the correct group of players. 'But if you call 49 players in five FIFA windows, it means you never found the correct group. So, it's more about me.'
Persuading Sunil Chhetri to end international retirement was not a mistake, he said. 'It was risky, yes. But we had problems in finding goals and he was scoring in ISL (Chhetri finished 2024-25 with 14 goals and two assists, the most by an Indian). He had a chance against Bangladesh and if he had scored, everything would have changed. Now, everyone can say that it was a mistake and I need to accept that. but I think that was not a mistake. He is a top professional and I was very satisfied to be able to count on him.'
Could players have done anything different? 'I feel the players can arrive with more…' he paused, searching for the word. 'Pride. Pride to play in the national team.' Gouramangi Singh is in his staff at FC Goa and Marquez said speaking to the former India defender and other retired internationals, he was told 'that the feeling was a little bit different than now'. But that was not why the results were poor, he said.
Marquez said he informed AIFF that he would not like to continue after the ISL play-offs in April and was told by national team director Subrata Paul that AIFF would not have time to find a replacement before the matches in June. 'I told him that it would be impossible to this a secret in the world of football.'
'As a player, the motivation is not the same when you know the coach will leave. I am not saying that is why we lost to Hong Kong, but I can tell you the training camp was difficult for me,' he said. India's 0-1 defeat to Hong Kong on June 10 was Marquez's last match.
Soon after his first national team assignment soured, the Spaniard, 56, is looking forward to another first: of coaching in a continental competition. Back at FC Goa for his third season, on a one-year deal, Marquez will be in charge of the Asian Champions League 2 qualifier against Oman's Al-Seeb next month.
'This pre-season is different because everyone is nervous. My feeling is that ISL will happen but if it starts late there could be another consequence. You need 27 games to be eligible for Asian competition and a late start could mean matches every two, three days and that can be risky for the players.'