Hours after India coach India, Khalid Jamil conducted a training session with Jamshedpur FC. It may be the last session Jamil conducts at the Indian Super League (ISL) club he joined on December 31, 2023. In between, from then till Friday, Jamil had seen Jamshedpur FC being fined three points for fielding an extra foreign player and reaching the ISL semi-final and the Super Cup final.
Backing from Former Teammates and Coaches
It was the last two in 2024-25 that made Jamil’s former coach and teammates rally behind him as the first Indian to be in charge of the national team since Savio Medeira in 2012. The role fell vacant when Spaniard Manolo Marquez resigned as head coach after 11 months.
IM Vijayan, who heads the All India Football Federation’s technical committee, supported his former Indian midfielder teammate, who twice running was AIFF coach of the year in a poll, as did Bimal Ghosh under whom Jamil had developed into a utility midfielder. At the AIFF executive committee virtual meeting on Friday, they also received backing from Armando Colaco and Shabbir Ali, the former India captain and a member of the technical committee and executive committee.
Executive Committee Leans Towards Jamil
According to the people who attended the meeting, Ghosh mentioned only Jamil’s name and Colaco stated he would be his first choice followed by Stephen Constantine. Awarded erstwhile coaches both, Colaco and Ghosh are also AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey’s advisors. Members also discussed Jamil’s inexperience at the international level and in handling a team that has the best of Indian players but Colaco and Ali, according to the AIFF media statement, said he must be given an opportunity.
There was also support for Constantine with one member drawing attention to how he had provided an uninterrupted tenure following Sukhwinder Singh in 2002 and another AIFF official opining since the new coach would not have time to acclimatize, the Anglo-Cypriot was his preference. Stefan Tarkovic, the remaining coach in the three-member shortlist, was hardly mentioned.
Contract Terms Under Discussion
Chaubey told PTI that Jamil has asked for a three-year term. An executive committee member suggested that the new coach be given a one-year contract, in line with the term remaining for the members, with a scope for extension, according to an official in the meeting. “It will be a long-term tenure, may be two or three years, and performance-based,” Chaubey has said. “The details will be firmed up by AIFF in consultation with Jamil,” said a federation official.
Also holding out for details are Jamil’s existing employers. Jamshedpur FC face 1 Ladakh in Durand Cup on August 8 and the quarter-final on August 16 or 17. But if Jamil wishes to begin preparation for the CAFA Nations Cup, from which India open on August 29 against Tajikistan, he might have to be released a bit earlier, or the club might ask AIFF to permit him to handle club and country in the short run.
Support Staff and Salary Demands
According to AIFF officials present at the meeting, Jamil has demanded a support staff of six of whom the majority could be from Jamshedpur FC. Jamil’s remuneration would be in the region of ₹1.2 crore per year, as per an official who attended the meeting. Constantine and Tarkovic had demanded $240,000 ( ₹20.9 crore approximately) after tax per year, the official added. As they cannot talk to the media on this, the officials named in this report requested anonymity.
A football fanatic with the gift of resurrecting players’ careers and making clubs punch above their weight, Jamil’s greatest challenge will be to get India, who have fallen to 133 in the FIFA rankings, into the 2027 Asian Cup. A first-ever hattrick of successful qualifying campaigns is, according to India’s talismanic striker Sunil Chhetri, the bare minimum. At the foot of the four-team group after a draw and a loss, India will be hosting Singapore next home and away in October.
Jamil’s sides are renowned for defensive solidity but occasionally breached in attempting to take the game to the opposition. Six of Jamshedpur’s 10 losses in 2024-25 ISL were against sides that ended beneath them. India are the top-ranked side in group C of the Asian Cup qualifiers and that might mean Jamil having to figure out a way against a strategy he is renowned for using.
