Khalid Jamil: From hating coaching to becoming chief tactician of Indian men’s football team

Freshly appointed Indian men's team head coach Khalid Jamil disliked it when he was first told to manage a football team.

Jamil was in his early 30s when his Mumbai FC head coach, David Booth, told him to handle the club's Under-19 side. "I didn't want coaching, I wanted to continue playing. So, I reluctantly took up coaching," Jamil said in a recent interaction with the Indian Super League (ISL).

But after a successful stint with the junior side, Mumbai FC appointed him as successor to Englishman Booth, kickstarting a managerial career that has secured him consecutive Men's Coach of the Year awards and now the coveted national team role.

Jamil was born in Kuwait but moved to India in the early 1990s when Saddam Hussein's Iraq invaded the country, leading to the Gulf War. He went to college in Mumbai, but never knew that football would turn out to be his calling.

"I was always passionate about football, though I never meant to make it a career. It just happened," Jamil, 48, said.

As a midfielder, Jamil played for India from 1997 to 2006, mainly under Syed Nayeemuddin and Sukhwinder Singh. He rates Singh highly for the freedom he gave the players, a trait that could be seen in Jamil's coaching style.

Jamil is the first Indian to reach the hot seat in 12 years, after Savio Medeira. It wasn't a hard choice considering his domestic successes, most notably scripting one of the biggest underdog stories in Indian football by inspiring Aizawl FC to the I-League title.

Jamil's ISL teams, be it NorthEast United or Jamshedpur, have always dared to challenge. "You need hunger from inside.. and a desire to carve your own path," Jamil said when asked about what domestic coaches needed to do to be considered for top jobs in Indian clubs.