The beleaguered U-17 soccer team, which has been in news for sacking of its head coach Nikolai Adam eight months before the FIFA U-17 World Cup in India, got a new coach on Wednesday. The All India Football Federation appointed Portugal’s Luis Norton de Matos as the head coach of the India U-17 World Cup team.
Matos had earlier met All India Football Federation advisory committee members and Sports Authority of India director general Injeti Srinivas on Monday, and flown to Mumbai to meet AIFF president Praful Patel in Mumbai on Tuesday.
Adam, a former Azerbaijan U-19 coach was under pressure since the Indian team fared poorly under his watch in the AFC U-16 championship and the BRICS Cup held in Goa last year. Worse came when the team finished last amongst the 16 teams in Granatkin Memorial Tournament in Russia. There were also reports of the players' morale being very low and team in disarray when Patel stepped in persuading Adam to step down. He was reportedly paid Rs 8 crore for his coaching stint.
As a stop gap arrangement, senior Indian team coach Stephen Constantine was given temporary charge of the team.
The 63-year-old Portugese coach spoke about his new assignment and the unenviable task of turning the team into winners in a short span of time. “My role will be to orchestrate everything wherein the players will be playing their part,” he told the AIFF committee. “I admire AIFF’s vision, and the U-17 World Cup will act as a base for development of football in India. The players need to believe in themselves to do something special for the country,” he said.
In a statement, Patel said: “ His (Matos') experience of handling youth teams will come in handy for the U-17 boys as we wish to leave no stone unturned to field a competitive team in the U-17 World Cup. I expect him to guide our boys to put up a strong performance in the World Cup.”
