No overnight leader

Thrown Into The Deep End With The Reins At Bengaluru FC, Naushad Moosa Says It Isn't Something He Hasn't Experienced Before. We Sat Down With The Blues' Interim Boss, Who Opened Up About The Last Two Months, And A Lot More...

In a strange sequence of four January nights, Naushad Moosa went to bed on one as the second assistant at Bengaluru FC and woke up the next morning as head coach. The next three nights, he couldn’t sleep a wink. The decision to part ways with Carles Cuadrat had been taken and Moosa’s phone went off. It was the top brass at the club. “I was asked if I would take charge of the team for the rest of the ISL season. On one hand, these are decisions you don’t want to rush. On the other, these are chances you don’t need time to say yes to. When it comes to quick decisions in difficult circumstances, this has to be one of the fastest ones I’ve taken,” says Moosa, sitting back and sipping on a cup of tea - in no hurry - on a sultry Goa afternoon.

A little more than a month and nine games after that call, Moosa says he couldn’t be more grateful that his baptism to the big league was one conducted by flames. “I spent a few uneasy nights with so many thoughts racing in my head. But that was till I decided to ask myself the one question I always ask my boys on the reserve team - what is the secret of failure? Fear. I’ve never let fear be the deciding factor to any decision in my life and there was no reason to change it now just because I turned head coach of one of the most successful clubs in Indian football,” he says.

He’s had a bit of a mixed bag with results since taking over, winning two, losing three and drawing four times but with every passing game there is a visible desire to fight against all odds, something that was missing early on in the season.

Ask him to choose between the wins against East Bengal and Mumbai City FC for his favourite moment as coach, and Moosa moves both of those options aside. “Personally, my finest moment was one where I felt that the squad began trusting me. You cannot put a price on that - that trust, that respect. I’ve been a professional player myself and I know how much it takes to completely trust a coach. I’ve been there.”

A fearless centre-half with a penchant for a long throw and a sledgehammer for a head, Moosa’s experienced being thrown into the deep end early on in his career. “I was in the 10th grade when I began playing for clubs in the local league in Mumbai. More often than not, I was a boy against men. My fitness routine involved running behind the scooter of my coach through the bylanes of the city. But football was what I wanted.”

His first big chance came with Air India where he started out as a striker and then filled in as a defender for a fringe tournament that most of the seniors decided to skip. “I was on the verge of being let go by Air India, till I played that end-of-season tournament in Bhilai. I had three man-of-the-match performances and signed an extension of my contract right there.”

Things only looked up and in what was a special year for Moosa, he had a phenomenal Santosh Trophy outing, he earned a national team call up along with a long line of suitors wanting him to pull on their club colours. “The year 1994 was special. I was an India international and that meant everything to me. I had all the leading clubs trying to convince me to join them and I eventually chose Churchill Brothers where I spent three seasons.”

From almost being struck off the roster at Air India, to signing a big deal with Churchill, securing a year with East Bengal and then three more with Mahindra United, Moosa was making all the big and right moves.

His final season as professional footballer was one that ended on the best possible note, but it also involved him bravely walking away when most would have overstayed their welcome. Strapped with the captain’s armband, he led Mohammedan Sporting to the championship in the Second Division in 2005 and helped the Black Panthers earn promotion to the I-League. But he wouldn’t stick around to see the promised land. “If I had taken an emotional decision, I would have played another season. But I had to be honest to myself and more importantly, my heavily operated upon knees. It was a very hard decision, but it was the right one. I had slowed down and I had to accept it. Today, I still have the respect from everyone at Mohammedan for that season and it only validates my decision to hang up my boots when I did.”

While he had a steady stream of impressive job offers at public sector companies that were involved in sport, Moosa didn’t fancy running to the comforts and security that came along with those offers. “I had harboured the dream of being a coach long before I had stopped playing professionally. I found the idea of being on the touchline and watching your plan unfold very empowering,” he says.

And just like he did with his career as a footballer, Moosa started from scratch when it came to coaching. “I remember walking in for an interview for the post of coach at an international school and the management seemed a little embarrassed to offer me what they did after they saw my CV. I put them at ease when I told them that my first salary at a football club was 1800 rupees and at some other clubs, the inclusion of breakfast and a railway pass seemed like a very big incentive. I started my job as coach of the football team the next day.”

Moosa recalls hitting roadblocks from state associations at every subsequent job where he was trying to help put a system in place for grassroots development. He felt he needed the kind of break that would allow him time and lend him support to do what he intended. That break arrived by chance at Mumbai FC. “I dropped by the club offices to meet a friend and before I knew it, I was sitting in front of the club’s former CEO Mukul Choudhari (now CEO at Jamshedpur FC) and was offered the opportunity to coach the club’s U19 side. I said yes and won them the Super Division title straight away,” recalls Moosa.

With half a foot in the door, Moosa began making moves on the professional circuit. He has a stint as head coach with his former club Air India, before spending three very successful seasons at Pune FC, leading their youth teams to trophies consistently. He then spent a year at Reliance Foundation Youth Sports (RYFS) before taking on the job at Bengaluru FC in 2017.

Like everyone associated with the club, Moosa too is excited at the prospect of a clean slate with Marco Pezzaiuoli, the Blues’ coach who takes charge post the ISL season. “I have used this stint to keep looking within and make a note of all the aspects that I need to work on. There’s so much I need to learn and I am going to make the most of working with Marco and improve myself,” says Moosa.

Moosa admits that the last two months have been life-altering in so many ways. But more importantly, he realises his role as one of the flag bearers of the cause of Indian coaches with this stint as the man at the helm of Bengaluru FC. “Indian football moving ahead isn’t restricted to just the players, it also involves the coaches. I believe this chance at Bengaluru FC is also a responsibility where I am representing Indian coaches. It’s nice to see Khalid (Jamil) do well with NorthEast United and I feel that despite all the circumstances, I have managed to give a good account of myself and in a way, of Indian coaches.”

He’s been spending most waking hours watching opponents, analysing them, working out plans for the way his boys will shape in games, but Moosa says he does make time to catch up with all the messages of support and encouragement he has been getting from different quarters. “The amount of support I’ve received from people around has been humbling. My wife is a little nervous but backs me, the fans have been so encouraging and the Indian football fraternity has only had kind words. My son Zidane was really excited when I was handed this role and he keeps calling me up and reminding me that I am a good coach. You don’t want to let that kind of belief down.”