The other Farias: NorthEast United pin their hopes on a veteran coach with a trophy luck
NORTHEAST UNITED HAVE turned to an experienced coach with proven track record in Asian football for the third edition of the Indian Super League.
In a cryptic tweet today, the franchise teased its fans with the identity of their new head coach, and the hints clearly pointed towards the accomplished Brazilian gaffer, Sergio Farias.
The man tasked with leading the charge for #NEUFC this season, has winning in his DNA and plays the seleção way! pic.twitter.com/lnfZZJyCQi
— NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) May 12, 2016
Last year, the John Abraham-owned franchise had put its faith in the Venezuelan coach Cesar Farias. Their performance showed signs of improvement despite their struggle with injuries, and the team - which finished at the bottom in the inaugural ISL - fell just short of a semi-final spot, ending 5th. Cesar Farias has since gone on to coach in top division clubs at Paraguay and Bolivia.
Incidentally, Sergio Farias has more in common with Cesar Farias than their similar-sounding names. Both started coaching at a young age, worked their way up to a place in top tier clubs, coached their country's junior teams, had valuable stints in clubs across two continents.
But one way that Sergio differs from Cesar is the number of titles he has won. The 48 year old Brazilian has had quite a trophy luck going for him in the early 2000s. He won the Brazilian Serie C with União Barbarense in 2004. After that he took over at the Korean top division club Pohang Steelers for an extremely successful 4 seasons where he went on to win the K-League, the Korean FA Cup, the K-League Cup followed by two major achievements in 2009: winning the AFC Champions League and finishing third in the FIFA Club World Cup.
Following this he has coached in UAE, Saudi Arabia, China, Thailand and Brazil.
Farias has been playing an active role in NEUFC's player recruitment process and will take charge once the franchise goes into pre-season in September, and head their efforts to earn their first ever top four finish in the ISL tournament.
