The All India Football Federation (AIFF) has recommended the name of former Director of Coaching Gabriel Joseph for the Dronacharya Award, Goal has learnt.
Gabriel Joseph, who hails from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala, could become only the second football coach after Syed Nayeemuddin to receive the honour which is annually awarded by the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports for outstanding and meritorious work in the field of coaching, should he win the award.
The veteran coach has worked with the AIFF as a consultant and advisor and also served as the Director of Coaching. He has also had worked with the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) as an instructor and as an assistant coach for the India national team when Syed Nayeemuddin was the head coach.
He was also in charge of the India youth teams, notably leading the India U17 side to a 3-2 win over China in the 1996 AFC U17 Championship, which was a commendable victory at that level.
Last year, the recipients of the award were Mohinder Singh Dhillon (Athletics), Rambir Singh Khokar (Kabaddi), U Vimal Kumar (Badminton), Sandip Gupta (Table Tennis), Sanjay Bhardwaj (Cricket) and Merzban Patel (Hockey). The only other football coach to have received the award, Nayeemuddin, won it in 1990.
AIFF
Gabriel is a renowned figure in the coaching community, having played a part in the development of many Indian coaches who have earned AFC licenses under his tutelage. He has also worked all over the country to establish a coaching education system in his role as Director of Coaching with the AIFF. It has to be noted that he was the lone active AFC coaches' Instructor in India for about 6 years at the initial stage of introduction of AFC licence courses.
He has had a very long and successful coaching career with the Indian Air Force, Services and Kerala. Gabriel became an NIS qualified coach in 1968 and later did his coaching qualifications from Brazil. He had undergone an International coaching course for 9 months in Leipzig, conducted by the German government.
Gabriel also played a huge role in bringing women coaches to the fore in India when he organised the one of the first courses for the same in 2007. Current Indian women's senior team coach Maymol Rocky is one of his proteges. Incidentally, Maymol is the first woman to take charge of the Indian women's team.
He is the only football coach from Kerala who has received the lifetime achievement in coaching award, instituted in the name of Olympian Suresh Babu by the Govt. of Kerala along with the Kerala Sports council.
The Dronacharya award from the Government of India will be a well-deserved accolade for the maestro, should he win it.
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