My philosophy is always to win and to play to the core, says Zico, marquee manager, FC Goa
FC Goa today officially welcomed back Brazilian legend and FC Goa marquee coach and manager Zico for season 2 of the ISL. FC Goa triggered a whirlwind of interest in the opening season of the ISL, when they signed on a genuine Brazilian legend and three-time World Cupper Arthur Antunes Coimbra, fondly known as Zico, as their marquee coach, has today announced his return for one more year.
He spoke to the media at an official press conference on his arrival, along with the owners Mr. Shrinivas Dempo and Mr. Dattaraj Salgaocar. Here are the excerpts from the interaction –
How difficult or easy was it to convince Lucio to join FC Goa?
Zico: It was difficult not just for Lucio but also for other players. Short tournaments like four months always need longer commitment but as soon as we talked about the situation and structure that we had here it was a lot easier to convince them. Most of these players have proposals for longer commitments in other teams and they are looking forward to longer commitments but they came because of my invitation and they wanted to be under my guidance.
Zico, please share your comments on your choice to contest FIFA Presidency.
Zico: I think if FIFA change the way they select the candidate, I think I will go ahead. I feel I am prepared to be a candidate for the presidency and I am prepared on all the parameters if the elections happen in January. But I must say with apologies that if I have to participate in the elections, it will be difficult for me to come back to Goa next year.
Every coach has his own inimitable style of play. As such given the new recruits for the season, four of them being Brazilian, is it a conscious effort on your part given that you have a better understanding of your boys back in Brazil, to give a much-improved performance with FC Goa?
Zico: I think that every trainer has to adapt to the style of playing with the players that we have. Last year, we had just one Brazilian, but we adopted a style that pleased everyone. My philosophy is always to win and always to play to its core and this is what we showed last year.
Even when the results that didn’t come as well as we expected, we were always the team that was shooting more and attacking more. This will always be the characteristics of my team. With the draft auction being a couple of days away, on the 10th of July, are there any probable players that you’ll are looking to pick up?
Mr.Salgaocar & Mr.Dempo: Zico arrived only yesterday and he has been busy meeting the school children this morning, so probably after the press conference we will have a short meeting with him to devise a strategy. We have done some exercises and research before but we want to consult Zico, that’s one of the reasons he is here, to take his guidance to move forward.
Having seen all the teams play in the first season, for the two of you who do you’ll consider your rivals this season?
Mr.Salgaocar & Mr.Dempo: I think as Zico say the biggest enemies are we ourselves because when we were losing so badly I remember his statement in Portuguese “the fear of losing should never take away the desire of winning”.
The basic fault lies in ourselves. What we should fear is fear itself so once we get that out of our system we can rise to the top. In also feel that in this second edition of the ISL, every team is going to get better and we cannot underestimate anyone. We need to be prepared and take every game seriously and I am sure our boys will do well.
Most of the foreign players arrived late last season because of which they were not fit in the start, is Zico planning to have a longer training season and because of the monsoon season, will you’ll train abroad?
Zico: I have all the planning of how to strategize, but we will still have the meeting with the owners to put it right. Last year, I don’t blame the players, but many came tired and with a lot of injuries. As it was the first year, I had to get to know a lot of players during the practise sessions but this year we have a lot of time and I think we can sort it out and because of that I thank the owners for all their support they gave me during the bad times on and off the ground and that is why we could recover through all the tough times.
FC Goa will at some point do very well, have you thought to give time towards the youth development programme of FC Goa?
Zico: I have thought about it but it is very difficult not just for FC Goa but for the eight teams of the ISL because when we finish the ISL all the teams dismantle and the players go to their own clubs.
I think we should think of something to give continuance to this programme so that we can join everything and prepare with the grassroots programme. We have good teams here in Goa like Sporting, Dempo, Salgaocar, and one idea that I gave is that, it should be just one good team just like FC Goa, but I know that is difficult. Even I thought that along with Mandar and Romeo, we could set up FC Goa schools here around Goa, but I don’t know if it will cause any conflict with the other clubs.
Mr.Dempo: As I have said earlier in my comments we have already kick-started the youth development programme. We have a structure in place for the same and we talked to many schools and adopted them as well. We will also use the services of Naidoo, who was the technical person in charge of GFDC earlier and now has been appointed as the Senior Technical Director at Dempo.
The services will be shared by FC Goa and Dempo sports club. Once he comes back, he will make an overall programme for the youth development programme. We are going to run this through Mr.Zico and take his advice on any improvements that could be made to the programme. That is how we plan to add value to the youth development programme, but the intent is definitely there that the grassroots development should be stronger.
We have seen a unique model and a very successful model in the I-league this year, and that is the Royal Wahingdoh model. They did not have any top class players, yet they came third in the I-League and I think that that is the way to go forward in the future and we also look forward to Mr.Zico’s advice in the future to strengthen our youth developmental programme.
FC Goa has always maintained that FC Goa the franchise actually belongs to the people of Goa, this year in reality we have less Goan players than what we had last year as of now. Do you think that the franchise can connect to the people without having many Goan players in the team?
Mr.Salgaocar: I think you should wait till the whole team is selected. Our preference is definitely for the Goans but everybody wants Goans in the country and it is very difficult. So give us some time and you will find more Goans in our squad, our top priority of course, is having more Goans in the team for Goa. This is the pride of Goa.