Derrick Pereira

New Delhi: There’s no stopping Mahindra United and the man who has galvanised the Mumbai outfit's progress is none other than Derrick Pereira - a former international defender, who always loves to work from behind the scenes.

The latest National Football League title - Mahindra's maiden - has also helped Pereira see his career coming to a full circle, after he had to suffer relegation as the Vasco coach last season.

Minutes after Mahindra were confirmed champions of the 10th NFL in Margao on Monday, the 42-year-old spoke to The Telegraph on how he guided the team to double title this season (Federation Cup being the other) and his ideas about coaching.

The following are excerpts

Q First person to win the NFL both as a player and a coach. Any Special feelings?

A Both give you immense satisfaction, but today the feeling is bit different. As a player, my contribution in Salgaocar’s success in 1999 was not too much as I was approaching the end of my career. Here my responsibilities were much more. I had to plan the strategy, manage the players and see the team maintains the winning pattern. I am happy that I could carry out the duties given to me. God has been very kind to me this season. I not only this year could complete my AFC A license course, but also won a rare double (Federation Cup and NFL) for Mahindra. It has been the most successful season for me.

Yeah, after all Vasco got relegated under you last season.

True, but that did not add to pressure I had. Last season Vasco was a good team, but injury of some of the key defenders let us down. Moreover, we did not have any quality striker in the team.

Since you are talking of strikers, did Jose Barreto’s presence made all the difference?

No doubt, it made a lot of difference. After all, Barreto or Yakubu are great players and top class strikers. Barreto played a big role in our Federation Cup victory, but in the NFL when he got injured in some matches, others carried out their responsibilities in a perfect manner. While top players like Barreto, Yakubu, Venkatesh or Gawli delivered the goods, juniors like Subhasis Roy Chowdhury, Steven Dias or Sushant Mathew rose to the occasion in crucial matches. That was one of the main reasons behind our success.

Will this victory help Indian football in any way?

May be to some extent as players will gain in confidence. But to do well at the international level, we need a different pool of players, who can only come through serious youth development programme. Even if the best coach comes, the present lot of Indian footballers won’t progress beyond a point. And to bring out players through youth development programme, we need a whole lot of coaches.

But we have coaches ....

Not exactly. We need coaches, who have done Fifa, AFC or some other coaching courses, so that they know exactly what should be done. We have some top class former footballers, who have turned coaches after leaving the game. But that won’t do. The coaches should go through a proper schooling, where you are specially taught to do things according to the need and trend of modern football. Coaches also need to get themselves educated. It’s good that the federation is planning to make it mandatory for coaches to obtain AFC license.

You have done AFC license courses. Then why did you turn down the offer to coach the national team last year?

I never turned it down. I did not apply for it, simple. That time I had a contract with Mahindra United. I did not want to break it. If you ask me now, all I can say is that I am fully ready for any international assignment. As a player, I feel, I did not fulfill the promise I had though I represented the country. But as a coach I am confident, I can produce good results.

What you think went wrong with the Calcutta clubs?

I should not comment on other clubs, but I feel they did not go for long term planning and relied too much on short-term success. One must have lost count the number of times Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting have changed coaches this season. That’s not the way to run a team. As players need time to settle, so do the coaches.