IPL tournament will create awareness about Indian football abroad – Trevor Morgan

Just two months after the end of his highly successful three-year stint at East Bengal, Englishman Trevor James Morgan is back in India to train the players who are contracted with IMG-Reliance for the proposed IPL-style tournament.

In his own admission, Morgan didn’t expect to return to Indian football so soon after stepping down as East Bengal head coach but the Englishman was happy to accept IMG-Reliance’s offer and now aims to get the players fit in this one-month training camp.

“In all honesty, no I didn’t (expect to return so soon). IMG-Reliance offered me the opportunity to return for one month and I was happy to accept it. My only aim is to help the players get their fitness levels up and assist them in becoming more professional in their outlook,” he told Sportskeeda.

Although the tournament will take place in January 2014, the camp is being conducted now to keep the players fit as no I-League club has signed any IMG-R contracted player yet but the deadlock could be resolved soon as some Kolkata clubs have reportedly shown interest in loaning some of the players.

Morgan has worked with some of the IMG-R players during his time at East Bengal like Sanju Pradhan, Nirmal Chettri, Ishfaq Ahmed and Syed Rahim Nabi and the 56-year-old admitted that it helped him settle.

“Yes, it always makes the first couple of days a bit easier than going in not knowing anyone. I know the majority of the players through competition in the I-League so it has been easy to settle in,” Morgan stated.

Anybody associated with Indian football has been heavily discussing the pros and cons of the new tournament.

In a previous interview with Sportskeeda, Morgan had notified that the biggest shame for the Big Kolkata derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan was the fact that many people outside India are not aware of the magnitude of this fixture.

The former Hull City development coach believes football’s IPL will certainly help create more awareness about Indian football in foreign shores.

“Hopefully the main benefit will be that people outside of India are aware that football here does exist. When I tell people at home of the crowds that games here attract they are amazed.

“IPL cricket has worldwide media coverage, everyone knows about it, why can’t football be the same?” he opined.

Morgan took charge of the training from Monday at the Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai and is being assisted by former Mahindra United assistant coach Arshad Hussain while former India goalkeeper Debashish Mukherjee is the goalkeeping coach and Dr. Sandeep Kurale the physio.