Kolkata: The preparations for the upcoming season of Indian football is in full swing as both the I-League and the ISL teams are trying their best to rope in the best players and support staff. According to sources, ISL franchise Northeast United are all set to secure the services of Portuguese João Carlos Pires de Deus as their new head coach. He would thus replace his countryman Nelo Vingada as the coach of the Northeast outfit.
The former Portuguese left-back has the experience of coaching international teams like West African nation and Cape Verde between from 2008-2010. He then went on to AD Ceuta, a Spanish second division club and later went on to coach second division clubs in Portugal. He took up the job of Cristiano Ronaldo’s childhood club Sporting Clube de Portugal ‘B’ in 2014 and went on to spend three seasons.
The Northeast outfit has performed well in patches in the earlier seasons of the ISL and this time around, they would want to be more consistent. They have retained two of their key players- Rowlin Borges and TP Rehenesh for the next season.
Also, according to a tweet by Kerala Blaster’s foreign recruit Michael Chopra, former Manchester City legend and English manager Stuart Pearce could be taking over as the head coach of the Kerala Blasters side. He was the manager of the Great Britain Olympic team at the 2012 Olympics and was also the coach of Nottingham Forest, a second tier club in English football.