This article lists the

India national football team The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Indian team, which was once cons ...

managers, the post which was incorporated in 1938 with the appointment of

Pankaj Gupta Pankaj Kumar Gupta (10 September 1898 – 5 March 1971) was one of the earliest Indian sports administrators involved in professional football, hockey and cricket. He is best known for his involvement in professional hockey where he worked va ...

for their tour to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

Balaidas Chatterjee Balaidas Chatterjee (10 March 1900 – 1974) was a former Indian football player and was the first head coach the India national football team during the 1948 Summer Olympics. During his playing days, Chatterjee played for Mohun Bagan in various ...

became the first manager of the national team in post-independent India, who guided the nation at the

1948 Summer Olympics The 1948 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XIV Olympiad and also known as London 1948) were an international multi-sport event held from 29 July to 14 August 1948 in London, England, United Kingdom. Following a twelve-year hiatus ca ...

in London.

Overview

Since

India's independence The Indian independence movement was a series of historic events with the ultimate aim of ending British rule in India. It lasted from 1857 to 1947. The first nationalistic revolutionary movement for Indian independence emerged from Bengal. ...

, there have been twenty-nine different head coaches for the national team, out of which eleven foreign. The most successful head coach for India was

Syed Abdul Rahim Syed Abdul Rahim (17 August 1909 – 11 June 1963), popularly known as Rahim Saab, was an Indian football coach and manager of the Indian national team from 1950 until his death in 1963, and a former player. He is regarded as the architect of ...

, who led India to gold in both the

1951 Events January * January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950). * January 9 – The Government of the United ...

and

1962 Asian Games ) , Host city = Jakarta, Indonesia , Nations participating = 17 , Athletes participating = 1,460 , Events = 120 in 13 sports , Opening ceremony = 24 August 1962 , Closing ceremony = 4 September 1962 , ...

while also achieving a fourth-place finish during the

1956 Summer Olympics The 1956 Summer Olympics, officially known as the Games of the XVI Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, from 22 November to 8 December 1956, with the exception of the equestrian events, whi ...

. The most successful foreign head coaches for India were

Bob Houghton Robert Douglas Houghton (born 30 October 1947) is an English football manager and former player. His career has spanned over 30 years and 10 countries. He is most famous for taking Swedish club Malmö FF to the 1979 European Cup Final, where th ...

and

Stephen Constantine Stephen Constantine (born 16 October 1962) is an English professional football coach and former player who is head coach of Indian Super League club East Bengal. Early and personal life Constantine was born on 16 October 1962 in London. He is ...

; both of them helped the team to qualify for

AFC Asian Cup The AFC Asian Cup is the primary association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), determining the continental champion of Asia. It is the second oldest cont ...

. With Houghton in charge from 2006 to 2011, Syed Abdul Rahim, India Football Coach

India won the

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to ...

twice and the

AFC Challenge Cup The AFC Challenge Cup was an international football competition for Asian Football Confederation (AFC) member countries that was categorized as "emerging countries" in the "Vision Asia" programme. "Vision Asia", created by former AFC president, ...

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

which allowed India to participate in their first

for 27 years. Since Houghton resigned as India team Head coach in 2011, the India national team's

FIFA ranking The FIFA Men's World Ranking is a ranking system for men's national teams in association football, led by Brazil . The teams of the men's member nations of FIFA, football's world governing body, are ranked based on their game results with the ...

touched its lowest at 173 in the team history in March 2015, but Constantine, who was appointed for the second time as the head coach of India, revived the Indian team from its meagre condition. Under him, the team remained unbeaten for two years from June 2016 to March 2018 winning 11 matches and drawn 2 matches, which helped them to qualify for

2019 AFC Asian Cup The 2019 AFC Asian Cup was the 17th edition of the AFC Asian Cup, the quadrennial international men's football championship of Asia organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). It was held in the United Arab Emirates from 5 January to 1 ...

after 8 years since Houghton left. He also helped the team to reach a better FIFA ranking of 96 in July 2017, which was the best in last 21 years.

List of managers

:''Managers in italics took charge as caretaker or interim manager'' *

(1938) *

(1948) *

(1951–1952) *

(1953) *

(1954) *

(1954) * ''

Bert Flatley Albert Austin Flatley (5 September 1919 – 9 April 1987) was an English association football, footballer and football manager. An Forward (association football), inside-forward, he was signed to Wolverhampton Wanderers F.C., Wolverhampton Wande ...

'' (1955) * Saroj Bose (1955) *

(1956–1962) * T. Shome (1958) *

Sailendra Nath Manna Sailendra Nath Manna ( bn, শৈলেন মান্না; 1 September 1924 – 27 February 2012), known popularly as Sailen Manna, was an Indian football player who represented the India national team between 1948 and 1956. Predominantly p ...

(1961) * G. M. Pentiah (1963) *

Harry Wright William Henry "Harry" Wright (January 10, 1835 – October 3, 1895) was an English-born American professional baseball player, manager, and developer. He assembled, managed, and played center field for baseball's first fully professional team, t ...

(1964) * Mohammed Hussain (1964–1967) * Sachindranath Mitra (1966) * S. R. Deb (1967) *

(1968) * Jarnail Singh (1969) * G. M. H. Basha (1970–1971) *

P. K. Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional footballer who played as a striker for the India national football team. He also captained the national team and later on became the coach of the national ...

(1971–1974) * J. Krishnaswamy (1974) * G. M. H. Basha (1975) * Jarnail Singh (1976) *

Sahu Mewalal Sheoo Mewalal (also known as Sahu Mewalal; 1 July 1926 – 27 December 2008) was an Indian footballer in Kolkata. He played as a striker and was known for his fitness, bicycle kicks, and goal-scoring abilities, especially using the rabona kick ...

(1977) * G. M. H. Basha (1977) *

Arun Ghosh Arun Ghosh (born 7 July 1941) is a former Indian football player who represented India internationally. He also played club football for both the Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan AC and East Bengal Club. Playing career He was part of the team that pl ...

(1978) * Jarnail Singh (1980) *

(1981–1982) *

Bob Bootland Robert Allison Bootland (died 13 June 2007) was an English professional football coach active primarily in India. He was the first foreign club coach in India. Bootland was described as "a taskmaster with a no-nonsense attitude." Career Robert A ...

(1982) *

Muhammad Salaam Muhammad Abdul Salaam (1931 – 3 December 2016), also known as Syed Abdus Salam, was an Indian former footballer. He competed in the men's tournament at the 1956 Summer Olympics. Honours Player Mohammedan Sporting *Calcutta Football Leag ...

(1983) *

Joe Kinnear Joseph Patrick Kinnear (born 27 December 1946) is an Irish former football manager and player. Kinnear played as a defender, spending the majority of his career—ten seasons—with Tottenham Hotspur. With Tottenham he won the FA Cup, the EFL ...

(1983) *

Milovan Ćirić Milovan Ćirić (Serbian Cyrillic: Милован Ћирић; 12 February 1918 – 14 October 1986) was a Serbian football coach and former player. He was the last player to captain SK Jugoslavija and the first captain of Red Star Belgrade (1945� ...

(1983–1985) *

(1984) *

(1985) *

(1985–1986) * Syed Nayeemuddin (1987−1989) *

Amal Dutta Amal Dutta (4 May 1930 – 10 July 2016) was a former Indian footballer, coach and football manager. Born in Calcutta, then Bengal Presidency, he is considered as the first professional football coach in the country. A finest thinker of the sp ...

(1987) * Anjan Chowdhury (1989) *

József Gelei József Gelei (born 29 June 1938) is a Hungarian former professional football player and manager. Career Playing career Gelei, who played as a goalkeeper, played youth football with MTK and Beloiannisz, before turning professional in 1957 wi ...

(1990–1991) *

Derek D'Souza Derek D'Souza is a former Indian footballer. D'Souza is known for scoring the first ever goal for the India national football team in the AFC Asian Cup qualifiers in the 1960 qualifiers in which he scored the only goal in India's 1–0 victor ...

(1992–1993) *

Jiří Pešek Jiří Pešek (4 June 1927 in Prague – 20 May 2011) was a Czech football player and professional coach. Pešek played for several clubs, including Bohemians Praha (1939–1951), Sparta Prague (1952–1955) and SK Slavia Praha (1956–195 ...

(1993−1994) * Rustam Akramov (1995−1996) * Syed Nayeemuddin (1997–1998) *

Sukhwinder Singh Sukhwinder Singh (born 18 July 1971) is an internationally acclaimed Indian playback singer who primarily sings Bollywood songs. He is famous internationally for singing " Jai Ho" from the film ''Slumdog Millionaire'' which won an Academy Awa ...

(1999–2001) * Islam Ahmedov (2001) *

(2002–2005) *

(2005) * Syed Nayeemuddin (2005–2006) *

(2006–2011) * ''

Armando Colaco Armando Colaço (born 22 June 1953) is an Indian football coach, who last managed East Bengal FC in the I-League. He is the most successful manager in the history of another I-League club Dempo, in terms of trophies in the last 20 years and is ...

'' (2011) *

Savio Medeira Savio Medeira (born 20 March 1965) is an Indian football manager and former player who is current technical director (interim) of the India national football team. Playing career Savio spent his whole career at Salgaocar S.C. in India from 1 ...

(2011–2012) *

Wim Koevermans Wilhelmus ("Wim") Jacobus Koevermans (born 28 June 1960 in Vlaardingen, South Holland), a former football central defender from The Netherlands, who earned one cap for the Netherlands national football team. He was a member of the Dutch team that ...

(2012–2015) *

(2015–2019) *

Igor Štimac Igor Štimac (; born 6 September 1967) is a Croatian football coach and former player who played as a centre back. He is the current head coach of the Indian national team. In his playing career, Štimac had three spells with Hajduk Split and ...

(2019−present)

Managerial records

*Only senior FIFA A matches considered. *List also includes managers who took charge of the national team in senior unofficial matches. *"Period" indicates the timespan of the first and last matches in charge, which may include periods not in charge of the national team

References

{{National football team managers * Lists of national association football team managers

Overview

List of managers

Managerial records

See also

References