Hero Indian Super League (Hero ISL) outfit Hyderabad FC recently announced their new partnership with German football club Borussia Dortmund. Both clubs were part of a media interaction to unveil their new partnership and discuss a wide array of topics at the launch, including the long-term development of coaches in India.

“One aspect of this partnership which we will be looking at is coach education. This is paramount to the development of good, young coaches. Having said this, in the last few years, a lot of the Hero ISL teams have invested a lot in the coaching education sphere. For grassroots level development, you do want to have a good set of coaches,” Mr. Varun Tripuraneni, co-owner of Hyderabad FC, explained.

Highlighting this facet of their new partnership, Mr. Varun hopes to see local coaches make the most of the opportunities they get, “Once normalcy resumes across the globe, there will be a number of visits of the Dortmund coaches to Hyderabad. We want as many local coaches (as possible) to interact with the Dortmund coaches when they are in India. Hopefully, we will see our best coaches travelling there to get an experience working with teams there.”

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Mr. Varun was joined by managing director of BVB Asia Pacific Mr. Suresh Letchmanan, who shared his thoughts on local coach development as well, saying, “All opportunities for the local coaches will be channeled through HFC. Football is for everyone and if there are interested parties we are always open and flexible. It is important that we give these coaches an opportunity via this relationship with HFC.”

Borussia Dortmund has a rich footballing culture in their nation, and one of their main objectives through this partnership will be to help inculcate a similar culture in the Indian football ecosystem. Mr. Suresh hopes to help the coaching staff of the Telangana-based club by sharing Dortmund’s knowledge of the beautiful game while learning more about Hyderabad’s football culture at the same time.

“The coaches at Borussia Dortmund are bred, born, and dedicated to Dortmund. They know the exact philosophy of the club. We will assess the coaches in Hyderabad, and share the footballing knowledge that we have. We are not here to show that we are a teacher, but we are also here to understand the footballing culture in Hyderabad,” Mr. Suresh explained.

At some point in the future, Mr. Suresh also sees coaches and youngsters from the club travelling to Germany to train and learn from the coaching staff at Dortmund. Keeping in mind the long-term development of the coaches and players alike, Mr. Suresh sees this partnership as a ‘mid to long term relationship’.

“This is important, to make the assessment. The different age groups will be lined up. At the same time, it’s important that the coaches, as well as the youth get a chance to come to Dortmund and have first-hand experience of how the programmes are run locally in Germany. This gives them a chance (to learn) in terms of nutrition, the dedication in the gym, etc. A lot of coaching departments will be involved in this project so that’s why we see this as a mid to long term relationship,” he said.