Seasoned coach Shareef Khan has taken up the role of head coach of Sethu FC, ending his stint as assistant coach of Gokulam Kerala FC.
The native of Malappuram, Sahreef has over 6 years of coaching experience in professional football and has had multiple successful stints at top clubs. His playing career spanned over a decade, representing top clubs Kerla like Viva Kerala, Josco FC, and Eagles FC. Shareef started as the coach of Gokulam Kerala FC U13 head coach and he worked as the assistant coach of the women’s team in the same season. Later, he was promoted to the reserve team coach position before switching to Kerala United FC.
“I never wanted to stay away from football,” Khan said. I decided to switch to coaching at a time when it was considered financially unrewarding. The introduction of coaching licenses, however, made a difference and people started to take it seriously,” said Shareef.
The native of Valanchery acquired the AFC D License as early as 2015 and subsequently, he acquired C and B licenses.
“Now women’s football has more opportunities in our country. A coach cannot impart his tactics and develop the players if the season is only 3 months long,” Shareef pointed out. “As the next season will be a 6-month affair, I have more time to work with the players”, Shareef sounded hopeful.
Indian football fans have always raised concerns about the short duration of the Indian Women’s League and the absence of any other competition for the ladies. With more investments coming in women’s football coupled with the expansion of ISL clubs into the women’s domain, the scenario appears more competitive now. The upcoming season will be the longest ever in the Indian Women’s League.
“I am skeptical still. If you notice the champions of IWL in the past 3 seasons, almost all players in the champions have been the same. The talent pool has not increased. The teams with deep pockets are buying the top national players and winning the title”, but Khan remained cautious.
Sethu FC, however, has a different philosophy. The owner of the Madurai team believes in nurturing young talent and playing an attractive brand of football.
“My club owner told me to scout talented young players and the plan is to give them a 3-year contract. He also emphasized that the results don’t matter to him and all he demands is an attractive brand of football,” Shareef said.
A free-flowing attacking style is the way Shareef wants his players to play. He had a small stint as interim manager for Gokulam Kerala FC after Oramas left the head coach position. Under his tutelage, the senior men’s team won both matches and scored 9 goals which is a testament to his attacking mindset.
Sethu FC will use Nehru Stadium in Chennai as their home stadium. Keeping the development of the local talents in mind, 6 players from Tamil Nadu have been included in the squad.
“Football is a community-oriented game and I want more players from the state to play for Sethu FC. The difference between the IWL teams in terms of quality is huge. We used to see scorelines of 6 goal differences in the IWL matches. We need to develop more talented youngsters to nullify this difference. The teams need to focus on youth development like Sethu FC”, Khan emphasized.
As Shareef Khan embarks on this new chapter, the Indian football fraternity will be watching with keen interest to see how he shapes the future of Sethu FC.
