COACH CONTROL: Odd man out Cesar is what NEUFC needed to turn fortune around
NORTHEAST UNITED MANAGER Cesar Farias is an odd man out in the group of eight that will be leading teams towards the coveted ISL title. In a tournament where the difference between a coach and a player is more blurred than your typical entry-level local amateur league, he is the only manager who has never played the game in a professional capacity.
A minute and analytical observer of the game, Farias got into coaching in Venezuela, his country of birth, at the age of 23, taking on the responsibility of getting a newly formed club Nueva Cadiz off the ground. Formed in 1996, the club won the National U-20 Series within a year, gaining entry into the Venezuelan Segunda División.
The dream run continued as on their very first try they earned the promotion to the Primera División. Their debut in the top flight, however, didn't go well. Cesar and his team were relegated back to the Segunda División. But the very next season, they topped the 2nd tier league, earning their first major silverware and gaining promotion back to the top tier. However, the club management made a deal with another club to let them have the promotion spot. At this point manager Farias left the club. Without him, the club played another season in the 2nd tier league, then folded.
Not many can lay a claim to having helped birth a club, and then guide them all the way to the country's top-flight league, especially at the age of 29. But as Cesar went around doing short managerial stints at various Primera División clubs, he already had a reputation of being an excellent manager with a keen eye for talent and an ability to work the team as a unit. Soon enough, he landed the job of the Venezuela national team manager, at age 34.
He spent six years with the Venezuela national team and took them to their first ever Copa America semi-finals. At the same time, he carried out the additional duty of managing the Venezuela U-20 team for a year. Under his watch, they earned qualification to the FIFA U-20 World Cup, another first for their country.
Cesar even visited India during his tenure, when Venezuela played Argentina in the Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. It's hard to say if he had any idea he would one day end up managing a team here.
Here at NorthEast United, his job is pretty straightforward. He needs to wipe out the disappointment of the first season so that the seasonal ISL viewership can revel in the upswing of the Highlanders. The target, of course, is the title, but he is probably less under pressure than his fellow managers because the NorthEast United fans have shown a degree of loyalty that few other franchises have seen in their fanbases, leading to security and freedom to work his own way.
And Cesar has done just that. He has played an active part in team-building, gotten some pacy, young and durable players, both among the Indians and the foreigners. He has enjoyed a hard-working pre-season where NEUFC took on some of South Africa's top tier clubs and beat a few of them. He is, quite frankly, off very much on the right track.
With a bit of push and matchday luck, NEUFC may well end up vying for a playoffs position. And once they are in the semis, it will be anyone's game. Who knows what might happen.
The man has, multiple times, taken a relatively worse-performing team and led them to the very top. If he manages to to do that with NorthEast United, it will be just another such feather in his cap, but for the Guwahati-based franchise it will be a historic turnaround of fate.
