India manager Manolo Marquez: Football is improving here all the time

Well-travelled Spanish coach is also at helm of Indian Super League team Goa

India national team head coach Manolo Marquez. AFP

Manolo Marquez is one of the busiest men in football. Not only does the 56-year-old Spaniard coach the Indian men’s national football team, he’s also in charge of Indian Super League side Goa. His success in India in taking an unfashionable side to the title made him a man in demand, but it wasn’t always so.

A decade ago, in the autumn of 2014 when Marquez was out of work, he travelled to England to watch Manchester United against Chelsea, plus a Stockport County home game. A respected coach in his native Spain, he’d been at several third-tier clubs and headed the youth system at Espanyol in Barcelona, bringing through players such as Eric Bailly.

Coaching is a cut-throat industry and there were times when Marquez wondered whether life would be better in a different line of work, but he continued to love and study football. In Manchester, he marvelled not only at the tactics on the pitches, but at the fans, the full stadiums – and he even helped sell some copies of the United We Stand fanzine on the street.

He also met several of his compatriots – there were and still are numerous Spanish coaches working in England following in the footsteps of the successful Rafa Benitez and Roberto Martinez.

Marquez could only watch. He was struggling. His marriage had ended, the bills needed paying. He was offered a youth coaching role in Qatar by someone who knew Pep Guardiola but was reluctant to leave his teenage daughter behind. He started the 2015/16 season at San Andreu, a third division club in Barcelona. It was a disaster and he was sacked after nine games. In Spain, you can’t coach more than two professional clubs each season. He was out of work with seven months remaining.

The darkest hour is just before the dawn.

In June 2016, Marquez was offered the job of coaching the relegated B team of Las Palmas in Spain’s regional fourth division. It was a lower level than he wanted to work at, but beggars can’t be choosers and he was in no position to choose. He was offered €2,000 a month plus a small car and apartment. Delighted, he set to work, his only doubt that he’d not see his daughter so often. He gave the job his all and Juan Carlos Valeron, a Spain and Las Palmas legend who played for most of his career at Deportivo La Coruna, became his assistant.

It went well, their side accrued 91 league points and were promoted, but Marquez was also promoted – to be the boss of Las Palmas in La Liga. He resigned a few games into the season, then began to work outside Spain for the first time – in Croatia. And then in August 2020 amid the Covid-19 pandemic, he moved to India. He never left. The National spoke exclusively to him.

How does a Spaniard end up being manager of India?

That’s something I often ask myself, but I spent three years coaching Hyderabad and a year at Goa. All was good. Hyderabad had finished with the lowest points total in their first ever Super League season. I joined and we finished fifth in my first season and, in my second season we were champions in 2022.

This wasn’t expected, it would be like Osasuna winning La Liga. Or Leicester City winning the Premier League. It happened because I found a group of young Indian players who were prepared to listen to me from the first minute of my first training session. It was during Covid-19 so I spent a lot of time with the players talking about the culture I wanted. Of course they had talent, but they listened and we started to win. We finished second in my third season, after which I left.

Six of those players made their national team debuts in our league-winning season and now all of them are with big teams in India. We also had six foreign players, but three of them were injured for the first part of the season. It felt like all of India was supporting us because we were the only Indian team with so many Indian players.

My contract at Goa runs out in 2025 and the national team called me. The previous manager had just lost his job. I wasn’t sure if I could do both but I thought a lot about it and accepted. It’s a lot of work but I can do it.

There are no breaks for me because I must go with the national team when there are international breaks, but the other side is that I know all the players in the top two divisions in India well because I’ve coached here a long time.

Why does India, a country of 1.3 billion, perform so poorly at football?

The main sport is cricket. The number two sport? I don’t know if it’s football, badminton or hockey. There’s also one javelin thrower who got a silver in the Olympic Games. Football is growing, but there’s a long way to go.

There are around 30 states in India. Football is very popular in some, even more than cricket. But football barely exists in other states. It’s popular in Kerala, the north-east and West Bengal where the Calcutta derby can be watched by 80,000 fans. In Kerala, the Blasters have very passionate fans. They’re a huge club, the stadium is often full – 40,000 people.

It’s a very big country and hard to organise football. In other top league games, there might be only 3,000 people. It’s not about the facilities, which are good when they are maintained, but developing scouting and coaches. All of this will take time as we’re waiting for a generation that must arrive. Until then, for me it’s a big challenge, but a nice one.

What’s the realistic aim for the national team? You’re unlikely to reach the World Cup finals. Is it just about improving a ranking where you are currently 125th in the world?

The real target is that the national team is the last part of the chain that begins with the grass roots and making them stronger – much stronger. There must be a philosophy that is consistent in every category so that when players arrive at the national team they are better prepared. Most footballers in India start to play the game quite late and there’s a lot of work to do to improve the standard.

You mention rankings, but rankings are a bit of a lie. India are above Cyprus, Latvia and Lithuania, where the level is stronger. We’re also behind African teams who are probably weaker than India because the rankings are formed by teams playing other countries from the same continent. It’s only when there’s a World Cup that countries from different continents meet.

We’ve had three draws and one defeat so far – against Syria. It’s difficult for us to beat a team like Syria who have so many foreign players. India doesn’t accept double nationality players. Other countries do.

Syria had the striker Pablo Sabbag. He’s Colombian and has never played in Syria. I asked him how many times he’s been to Syria and he hadn’t, but that he was of Syrian descent.

We played Malaysia recently and drew 1-1. Most of their players were not born in Malaysia. Ezequiel Aguero is from Argentina, but when you live in Malaysia for several years you can become a citizen. Malaysia had Dion Cools who was born in Malaysia but grew up in Belgium and played for Belgium up to Under-21 level. He played Champions League football with Club Brugge at a far higher level than any Indian player.

The salaries in India are good for Indian players – and that can be a bad as well as a good thing. Players don’t need to go abroad when they are here and are comfortable at home with families, but it would help raise the levels if some of my players were involved in a higher level elsewhere.

Next we are playing the qualifiers for the Asian Cup. The first game is in March. Most of the opponents are playing with players who have dual nationality.

You must like it if you’ve stayed for six years.

I love India. I was and am very lucky because I lived in Hyderabad, a fantastic city. Now I’m in Goa, with the beaches and good weather. It’s a great place to live, but it’s not just about the places, it’s the people that make India.

There are huge differences between the rich and poor but I always say, ‘the less they have the more they have’. I brought my daughter here and after two weeks she said ‘What a country! It’s fantastic’. People love or hate India, they’ve either had enough after two days or they love it. I love it. It feels like my second country, but I’ll be honest I wasn’t thinking that when I first arrived. I was thinking ‘What are you doing here, Manolo?’

Now, I get emotional when I hear the Indian national anthem. How can this be for a man from Barcelona?

But I’m still not used to the spicy food. This is my most difficult step by step process. I ask for less spice but it’s still too hot for me. I do like the desserts though.

How is Indian football changing?

The Super League now has 13 teams. Franchises. Teams have been added each year – and there’s no relegation now. The idea is to have 16 teams in each of the first two leagues, with all states represented.

It’s a big country. Hyderabad was OK for travel, it’s in the middle like Madrid in Spain. But to get from the north-east to the south it can take all day. Two days travel for one game.

On the pitch, the level is much better than when I arrived in the country. The Indian players are more professional, they care about nutrition, gym work. It’s a competitive league now. It’s getting better all the time.

What type of football do your teams play?

It depends on where I am. Even in Spain, you cannot play the same football in Catalonia as you can in the Canary Islands. The weather is different. So you must adapt to your players.

In India, after the 60th minute the games become crazy and open, full of attacks. This happens in many countries, but we can use this to our advantage.

With the national team, I don’t have too much time for training sessions so it’s difficult to implement my style in a short period of time.

India’s next game is in March. We don’t know the opponent. We need to play a friendly first, then a game to qualify for the Asian Cup. The draw is on December 9. I’m looking forward to it. But first, games with Goa.