Indian Football News: 5 things you need to know about Igor Stimac, the next National Team Coach
After Stephen Constantine resigned from the Indian national football team coach post India's early exit in the AFC Asian Cup 2019, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) took its time to zero in on a replacement.
The AIFF finally seems to have come to a conclusion after bringing down the candidates to a shortlist of four names in Hakan Ericson, Albert Roca, Igor Stimac and Lee Min-Sung. The AIFF Technical Committee met on Thursday in New Delhi and has forwarded the name of Igor Stimac from Croatia to the Executive Committee for a final decision.
The coach is largely dependent on set-pieces and counter attacks to score goals. He may just be able to modify the current playing style to a more efficient and lethal one with the perfect set of players on the pitch.
Sportskeeda takes a look at the Top 5 things every Indian Football fan should know about the upcoming Gaffer.
#5 Played for Yugoslavia and Croatia
Post the split of Yugoslavia in 1991, Croatia have played as an independent side. Stimac has had the opportunity to play for both the erstwhile Yugoslavian U-20 side and the Croatian National side.
He made his debut for Yugoslavia in 1987 and was part of the side which went on to win the 1987 FIFA World Youth Championship in Chile. Stimac played four games and scored twice in the tournament.
He made his International debut for the newly Independent nation, Croatia, in 1990 and went on to play for the Vatreni till 2002. He was notably part of the Croatian squad which finished third in the FIFA World Cup 1998 in France.
Croatia bowed out of the tournament after losing 2-1 in the Semi-Finals to the hosts. They went on to defeat the Netherlands 2-1 in the third-place match.
Stimac has earned a total of 53 International Caps, spanning across 12 years. He has also scored two International Goals. He scored against Estonia in a 7-1 win in the Euro 1996 Qualifiers. He also found the net against Israel in a 2-0 friendly win.