Mohun Bagan bag Bencherifa on bumper contract
Mohun Bagan AC may have lost the art of winning in recent times but they are still adept at poaching the best of players (Odafa Okolie, Tolgay Ozbey, to mention a couple of examples) and coaches.
In the latter case, the Mariners have just ensured that Karim Bencherifa will make an unscheduled arrival at Port Kolkata after they enticed him to return to the ‘maidan’ as a mid-season replacement for the hapless Santosh Kashyap who came a cropper in the Federation Cup and the first two matches of the I-League.
Incidentally, this is the second time that the maroon & green brigade have been able to lure away a coach from the fabled green shirts, Salgaocar Sports Club (now FC), in mid-season. In 1997, T K Chathunni, who had just piloted the Goan miners to a Federation Cup win, was whisked away to Kolkata at the start of the second edition of the National Football League in a clandestine operation.
Since the redoubtable Malayali tactician was still contracted to Salgaocar at that time, he could not openly flout the provisions of the contract and was forced to subject himself to the unedifying spectacle of coaching his new club from the stands till the matter was sorted out in favour of the Kolkata outfit. It eventually proved to be a beneficial move for both the parties concerned as Chathunni guided Mohun Bagan to their first title triumph in the tournament.
Will history repeat itself for Mohun Bagan and their new helmsman this time around as well?
In this case, the switchover was done with a little lesser drama. The Moroccan mentor, who was bound to Salgaocar till the end of the current season, had enchased an exit clause option in his contract to enable him to make the transition from the balmy waters of the western coastline to the turbulent but passionate climes of the east after serving out a one month notice period. The denouement did not come as a surprise to the Salgaocar FC management as the rumblings were in the air but it has nonetheless left all of them shell-shocked.
Coaches are generally an endangered species in football and they are subject to summary sackings for the non-performance of their team or other prickly matters, albeit after pocketing whatever compensation that is written into the contract. So when a Bencherifa gives his employers the boot, it is a rare but celebrated instance of the meek acing the mighty.
To rewind, in September 2011, after winning the Federation Cup with Salgaocar following his spectacular I-League triumph, Bencherifa was offered the post of national coach by the All India Football Federation. But he declined to take up the offer despite having an exit clause in the contract, citing in his media comments on the issue his “commitment” to both the Salgoacar chairman and the players and that he wanted people to remember that he was “honest to my job” and did not want to be labeled an “unprofessional guy”.
So what made the difference this time around? Was it the offer he could not refuse – a reportedly mind boggling contract of Rs 2.5 crore for 19 months, making him the highest paid manager in Indian football – that made the mare go round?
To be fair, Bencherifa is entitled to change his mind and move on, even though his decision will leave the side he himself built over the last couple of years in turmoil.
More importantly, given the intense premium put on winning at some clubs, will this new phenomenon usher in the era of ‘aya ram, gaya ram’ culture among football coaches in India that one often sees in Indian politics?