‘tiki-taka’ coming to India?

Do not use pictures without permission of gcsstars.com
Photo credits: Oscar Bruzon

As Round 9 of I-league comes to an end, we’ve seen as many as five teams changing their coaches. Latest in the addition is Sporting Clube de Goa. After a lackluster show till date with only two wins, the Goan team has appointed Spainard Oscar Bruzon for a better show.

Now that this appointment news is doing rounds for few days - not unknown to anyone! Let's begin where it all started.

Care to read…

A wintry morning at the Bangalore Football Stadium last season saw a medium-height foreigner witnessing the practice session of a visiting I-League team.
 
He looked fit, a fellow scribe remarked, “Aww, must be a football agent” another added, “Nahi, looks like a talent spotter”. 

After stepping out from the stadium, met him once again, gentle eye contact and a nod of head - gesture of hello! 

So he comes and introduces, Oscar Bruzon Barreras. His business card mentions UEFA A Pro coaching license along with some coaching experience with few clubs in Spain. 

“Hmm, impressive, so what are you doing here?”

“Well, I’m on a vacation, was in Pondicherry for a while and will be visiting to Goa soon. But I would like to take up some coaching assignments here.” 

“Goa or Kolkata would be the destination for you. There’s barely any team here in Bangalore where you can ply your trade.” 

“I would still like to try my luck here.”

“Okay!” 

Scribbled down couple of websites/addresses of football training institutes.

Cut to the tolerable summer-of-Bangalore – noticed a huge poster on my way to office: 

Football coaching camp, get coached by UEFA certified football professional

Ahh, those scribbling worked, it took no time for me to understand! And days later, as teasingly acknowledged by Oscar, “You’re the main culprit behind this engagement!” 

Oscar is now employed with SPT Sports, a sports management company having interests in grassroots football. He is at the helm of the football wing, using Oscar’s expertise, his employer ventured in providing training to several of football academies across the country. 

His new assignment – coaching a team for country’s top-level league, is definitely a challenging one. Not that something he’s done here before. Oscar is up for this big challenge. 

To recapitulate in his own words, “It is a big challenge, hope to revive the current situation”.  

The last line, quite an interesting one, at least on a personal note, “My path in India has begun with you, thanks my friend” 

Best wishes Oscar!