I-LEAGUE Media Team

NEW DELHI: The Kalyani Group announced the appointment of H Stanly Rozario as the assistant coach at the group’s Pune-based I-League Club.

Rozario will assist head-coach Stuart Watkiss in training and other allied activities at the club, which will participate in the 2014-15 season of the I-League slated to begin on the 17th of January.

54-year-old Rozario brings with him a wealth of coaching experience collected over 24 years. Rozario has been associated with a number of reputed Indian football clubs and has also been the assistant coach of the Indian national football team, having served the nation from 2005 to 2008.

He holds an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) A licence and has recently completed the AFC Pro licence.

Rozario has also served as head-coach of two Kolkata powerhouses, Mohun Bagan AC and East Bengal FC. Mohun Bagan finished as the runners-up in the 2010-2011 Federation Cup campaign with Rozario at the helm.

The 54-year-old was also instrumental in guiding Salgaocar SC back into the top-flight in 2009, helping the Goan outfit to victory in the I-League second division. The Bangalore-native also managed to propel, Shillong Lajong FC to the finals of the Federation Cup in 2009-2010 and has also served as the head-coach at another club in the north-east, United Sikkim. Rozario’s last assignment was that of head-coach at Eagles FC which competed in the I-League second division and Federation Cup in 2014.

Executive Director of the Kalyani Group, Amit Kalyani, said that it was Rozario’s tactical acumen combined with a proven ability to extract the best from his team that led the Kalyani Group to appoint him as the assistant coach at their club.

“Stanly has had a long and fruitful coaching career. His experiences with a variety of clubs and the Indian national side can help him to assist Stuart Watkiss, our head-coach, in the best possible manner. Stanly has an in-depth knowledge of Indian football and we hope that he can utilise this knowledge to build a strong outfit along with Stuart,” he said.

Rozario, who has also coached the Services football team for 13 years from 1994 to 2007 said that an opportunity to work with a group as professional and visionary as the Kalyani Group was hard for him to pass up on.

“With such a strong management, we can only do good things in Indian football. My immediate goal is to utilise my experience and help Stuart Watkiss build a strong team. Me and Stuart (Watkiss) both like working with young players and our aim is to build a very competitive squad,” he said.