Stephen Constantine (born 16 October 1962) is an English professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

coach Coach may refer to: Guidance/instruction * Coach (sport), a director of athletes' training and activities * Coaching, the practice of guiding an individual through a process ** Acting coach, a teacher who trains performers Transportation * Co ...

and former player who is head coach of

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

club

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

Early and personal life

Constantine was born on 16 October 1962 in London. He is of Greek-Cypriot descent. He is a fan of English club

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

. Constantine is married with three daughters; his family were living in Cyprus while he was coaching in Sudan.

Playing career

Constantine played in the United States for the

Pennsylvania Stoners The Pennsylvania Stoners were an American soccer team based in Allentown, Pennsylvania. Founded in 2007, the team played in the National Premier Soccer League (NPSL), a national amateur league at the fourth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid, ...

and the

New York Pancyprian-Freedoms New York Pancyprian-Freedoms is an American amateur soccer team based in Astoria, New York, United States. Founded in 1974, the team plays in the Eastern Premier Soccer League, a league at the fifth tier of the American Soccer Pyramid. The tea ...

. He retired from playing at the age of 26, following a serious knee injury.

Coaching career

After retiring from playing, Constantine spent his early coaching career in the United States and Cyprus. Constantine coached the Nepal national team between 1999 and 2001, and was awarded a medal by the country's King. Constantine was then manager of the India national team from 2002 to 2005. After leaving India he was the first-team coach for English club

Millwall Millwall is a district on the western and southern side of the Isle of Dogs, in east London, England, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It lies to the immediate south of Canary Wharf and Limehouse, north of Greenwich and Deptford, east ...

during the 2005–06 season. He has also worked in England for

AFC Bournemouth AFC Bournemouth () is a professional association football club based in Kings Park, Boscombe, a suburb of Bournemouth, Dorset, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the highest division of English club football. Formed in 1899 as B ...

. In January 2007, he was on a two-man shortlist, alongside Carlos Alberto da Luz, for the manager's job of the Malawi national team. He was named as Malawi manager in February 2007, with the role beginning on 1 March 2007. He resigned in April 2008. He became manager of the Sudan national team in February 2009. After leaving Sudan he managed in the Cypriot domestic leagues with

APEP Apep, also spelled Apepi or Aapep, ( Ancient Egyptian: ; Coptic: Erman, Adolf, and Hermann Grapow, eds. 1926–1953. ''Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache im Auftrage der deutschen Akademien''. 6 vols. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs'schen Buch ...

and

Nea Salamis Famagusta Nea Salamis Famagusta or Nea Salamina Famagusta ( el, Νέα Σαλαμίνα Αμμοχώστου) is a Cypriot sports club based in Ammochostos (also known by its romanized name, Famagusta), Cyprus. The club is named after Salamis (or Sala ...

, the latter of which he guided to promotion in the

Cypriot First Division The Cypriot First Division ( el, Πρωτάθλημα Α΄ Κατηγορίας) is the top tier football league competition in Cyprus, run by the Cyprus Football Association. Since February 2016, it is sponsored by Cyta and is thus officially ...

. He was also manager of

Ethnikos Achna Ethnikos Achna Football Club ( el, Αθλητικός Σύλλογος Εθνικός Άχνας), commonly known as Ethnikos Achna, or simply Ethnikos, is a Cypriot football club based in the village of Achna. Founded in 1968, the club current ...

from December 2012 to February 2013. In July 2013, he was linked with the Jamaica national team vacancy. He became the assistant manager of Greek club

Apollon Smyrni Apollon Smyrnis Football Club ( el, ΠΑΕ Απόλλων Σμύρνης), or in its full name Gymnasticos Syllogos Apollon Smyrnis ( el, links=no, Γυμναστικός Σύλλογος Απόλλων Σμύρνης, ''Gymnastics Club Apollon o ...

in November 2013. He set up the ''British Coaches Abroad Association'' in November 2013. Stephen Constantine

He became manager of the Rwanda national team in May 2014, taking charge of his first match in June. He stated his aim was to build a team strong enough to challenge for the 2016 African Nations Championship, which Rwanda were due to host. In December 2014 Rwanda attained their highest ever

ranking A ranking is a relationship between a set of items such that, for any two items, the first is either "ranked higher than", "ranked lower than" or "ranked equal to" the second. In mathematics, this is known as a weak order or total preorder of o ...

, of 68th position. Later that month he was linked with a return to India as their new national manager, and in early January 2015 he was offered the position.

Return to India

In December 2014, it was reported that Constantine would become the next head coach of

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

again, after

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 ...

' contract ran out. He would beat the favourite for the position,

Ricki Herbert Ricki Lloyd Herbert (born 10 April 1961) is a New Zealand former footballer and manager. He is the current technical director at Cambridge FC. Herbert was formerly head coach of the New Zealand national team, stepping down after the side faile ...

. On 16 January 2015, it was confirmed that Constantine had returned to take over India for a second stint. His first match as India head coach came on 12 March 2015 in the qualifier against Nepal at the

Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium, also known as Sarusajai Stadium, is a football stadium in Guwahati, Assam, India. It is the current home ground of NorthEast United FC. Besides hosting football matches, the stadium is also used for athletics. It ...

. Two goals from

Sunil Chhetri Sunil Chhetri (born 3 August 1984) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains both Indian Super League club Bengaluru and the India national team. Widely regarded as the greatest Indian footballer of all time, h ...

lead India to a 2–0 victory and lead going into the second leg in

Kathmandu , pushpin_map = Nepal Bagmati Province#Nepal#Asia , coordinates = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = Province , subdivision_name1 = Bagmati Prov ...

. A 0–0 draw at the

Dasarath Rangasala Stadium Dasharath Rangasala ( ne, दशरथ रंगशाला; ) is a multi-purpose stadium in Tripureshwar, Kathmandu. It is named after Dasharath Chand, one of the four great martyrs of Nepal. The stadium is used mostly for football matches a ...

saw India progress to the next round of World Cup/Asian Cup qualifying. As a result of India's top results against Nepal, the country saw a rise by 26 in the April FIFA World Rankings to 147. In April 2015, it was announced that India would be placed in Group D for the World Cup/Asian Cup qualifiers with Asia's top side,

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...

, as well as

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

Turkmenistan Turkmenistan ( or ; tk, Türkmenistan / Түркменистан, ) is a country located in Central Asia, bordered by Kazakhstan to the northwest, Uzbekistan to the north, east and northeast, Afghanistan to the southeast, Iran to the sout ...

, and

Guam Guam (; ch, Guåhan ) is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States in the Micronesia subregion of the western Pacific Ocean. It is the westernmost point and territory of the United States (reckoned from the geographic cent ...

. India came bottom of the group, winning only one game. In January 2016, Constantine led India to the

SAFF Championship The South Asian Football Federation Championship, commonly known as SAFF Championship (previously known as ''South Asian Association of Regional Co-operation Gold Cup'' and ''South Asian Football Federation Gold Cup''), is the main international ...

title, beating Afghanistan 2–1 in the final. He led India to 100th in the FIFA rankings as of June 2017. The win against

Kyrgyzstan Kyrgyzstan,, pronounced or the Kyrgyz Republic, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Kyrgyzstan is bordered by Kazakhstan to the north, Uzbekistan to the west, Tajikistan to the south, and the People's Republic of China to the east. ...

in June was India's eighth in a row. The unbeaten streak ran to 13 games, including 11 wins, but ended with a 2–1 defeat to Kyrgyzstan in March 2018. During the unbeaten run, India qualified for the

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 ...

. In June 2018, India won the Intercontinental Cup, beating Kenya in the final. Afterwards, Constantine was named

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

coach of the year in India. THA-IND match 20190106 AFC Asian Cup 9

At the 2019 Asian Cup, Constantine said he was aiming for progression from the group stages. The team won their opening game against Thailand, but finished fourth in their group after conceding a last-minute penalty in their final group game against Bahrain, and Constantine resigned from his position as manager. After his resignation, the

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

president

Praful Patel Praful Manoharbhai Patel (born 17 February 1957) is an Indian Nationalist Congress Party politician, industrialist and sports administrator. He was the president of India's association football governing body the All India Football Federatio ...

said: "It's been a wonderful journey. We have travelled a long distance together, and the world has seen it all." Constantine took India from 173 in the

FIFA World Rankings 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 ...

in March 2015 to 97 in December 2018.

Later career

In January 2021 he became chief football operations officer at Cypriot club

Pafos Paphos ( el, Πάφος ; tr, Baf) is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos. The current city of Pap ...

. In February 2021 he was appointed head coach. His contract expired on 30 June 2021. In January 2022 he was linked with the vacant role as the Singapore national team manager. In July 2022 he became head coach of

club

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

FIFA

Constantine has worked as a

FIFA FIFA (; stands for ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' ( French), meaning International Association Football Federation ) is the international governing body of association football, beach football and futsal. It was found ...

Instructor, and is a member of FIFA's elite coaching panel.

Other

In March 2018, Constantine's autobiography, ''From Delhi to the Den'', was nominated for the

Football Writers' Association The Football Writers' Association (FWA) is an association of football journalists and correspondents writing for English newspapers and agencies. It presents the Footballer of the Year Award, the oldest and most distinguished award given in the d ...

book of the year, part of the British Sports Book Awards.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Constantine, Stephen 1962 births Living people English footballers English expatriate footballers English football managers English expatriate football managers Expatriate soccer players in the United States Expatriate soccer managers in the United States English expatriate sportspeople in the United States Expatriate football managers in Cyprus English expatriate sportspeople in Cyprus Expatriate football managers in Nepal English expatriate sportspeople in Nepal Nepal national football team managers Expatriate football managers in India English expatriate sportspeople in India India national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Malawi English expatriate sportspeople in Malawi Malawi national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Sudan English expatriate sportspeople in Sudan Sudan national football team managers Expatriate football managers in Greece English expatriate sportspeople in Greece Expatriate football managers in Rwanda English expatriate sportspeople in Rwanda Rwanda national football team managers Footballers from Greater London English people of Greek Cypriot descent Pennsylvania Stoners players New York Pancyprian-Freedoms players AFC Bournemouth non-playing staff Millwall F.C. non-playing staff APEP FC managers Nea Salamis Famagusta FC managers Ethnikos Achna FC managers Association footballers not categorized by position 2019 AFC Asian Cup managers Pafos FC non-playing staff Pafos FC managers Association football coaches East Bengal Club managers