Armando Colaco nominated for Dronacharya Award

All India Football Federation (AIFF) has nominated Dempo FC coach, Armando Colaco for the prestigious Dronacharya award. The Dronacharya award is known to be the highest honour for a coach in India. Colaco spent his last twenty years in football management. He is not only Dempo’s most successful manager in club history, but also their longest serving manager. Colaco also enjoyed success with Churchill Brothers in his early days.

For almost a decade Armando has been the most successful football coach at the club level in India. On May 20, 2011 Colaco got the prestigious job of managing Indian football team. The AIFF didn’t nominate him before for this honour, because they were speculative about recommending a coach for Dronacharya award who haven’t managed the national team. But the moment Colaco was appointed the national team coach last month, the AIFF did not waste any time to recommend the Dempo SC coach for the highest coaching honour in India.

One of the AIFF officials said – “We could not look at anyone beyond Armando for the award,”

Since Syed Nayeemuddin, former India coach, collected the award in 1992, no other football coaches were able to grab the honour.

Meanwhile, Shabir Ali, former India captain and at one time India’s leading scorer, has been nominated for the Dhyanchand lifetime achievement award while Baichung Bhutia, IM Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri, Deepak Mondal, Sunil Chhetri, Shanmugham Venkatesh and Subrata Paul have been nominated for Arjuna award.

Tags: AIFF, All India Football Federation, Armando Colaco, Coach, Dempo FC, Dronacharya Award