INDIA - Asia is about to lose one of its most qualified coaches - but not for long, not if the coach in question has anything to do with it.

Stephen Constantine, coach of the India national team (and just about every other representative team to wear the India national strip) for the past three years, is heading back to England but hopes to be back coaching in Asia if the right opportunity comes his way.
 
"The attitude of the players in Asia is something that I will really miss," the 42-year-old told footballasia.com from his home in Goa, south India, days before his departure for the United Kingdom.
 
"They are much more willing to learn than in other parts of the world where I have worked. In Europe, the players think they know it all by 20!
 
"Here, they are more coachable and more adaptable to different ideas and new ways of doing things. I will certainly miss that but I hope I won't be away too long."
 
Constantine, a holder of the UEFA Pro Licence, the highest coaching qualification in Europe, certainly leaves India's players and the national team in better shape than when he arrived in 2002 after two years coaching the Nepal national team.
 
That may not be reflected in India's FIFA/Coca-Cola World Ranking - few people actually use the monthly 'charts' as a reliable or accurate indicator of a team's form - but talk to any of the players and coaches in India and you will get an idea of how highly thought of the Englishman is.
 
"Stephen Constantine is the reason Indian football has improved so much over the last three years," is India skipper Baichung Bhutia's no-nonsense verdict.
 
"Where was Indian football three years ago?" asked S Venkatesh, who plays for the national team and for Mahindra United, one of Mumbai's leading teams. 
 
"He has given us confidence, spirit and the will to win. We owe him a lot."
 
Close observers of Indian football say the players have grown in confidence during Constantine's tenure. Their tactical awareness has also come on in leaps and bounds and the public interest in football has never been so high. The last home game for the national team attracted 60,000 fans.    
 
Despite the clear progress Indian football has made over the last couple of years, his liking for the job and the depth of respect and affection his players and the All India Football Federation (AIFF) have for him, Constantine was determined to leave for pastures new, even though the AIFF were keen he signed a new contract.
 
"I was flattered that they [the AIFF] wanted me to stay on but I made up my mind that it was important for my development as a coach to move on," explained the soon-to-be father of three.
 
"It was also a decision I had to make for my family, because my wife is due to give birth in June and it is important that she is around family and friends, especially as she has always had to fall in with where my career took me."
 
Looking back on his three years in India, Constantine picked winning the LG Cup in Vietnam in October 2000 as the highlight. The victory was especially sweet as Constantine has only been in the job a matter of weeks.
 
Billed as a pre-2002 Asian Games warm-up, India's Under-23s drew with Singapore, beat the hosts Vietnam and then booked their place in the final with a 3-1 win over Indonesian club side Petrokimia.
 
In the final, Constantine's men rallied from two goals down to notch an unlikely 3-2 win over Vietnam in Ho Chin Minh. The victory was India's first trophy in 42 years.
 
"I hope this victory shows everybody in India that we have the potential to be among the best in Asia," said Constantine at the time.
 
"I am confident India, with its quality players and a quality coach, could go a long way in Asian and world football."
 
In many ways, doing so well so early on in his spell with India turned out to be a millstone around Constantine's neck. The Indian sports media, excitable at the best of times, took the win as proof that Indian football was about to enter a golden era.
 
A few months later, India were brought down to earth with a bump when they failed to advance beyond the Group Stage at the Asian Games in Busan. People forget, however, that India were drawn in the same group as China, to whom they only lost 2-0.
 
India's other most notable achievement during the Constantine years was winning silver in the Afro-Asian Games at the tail-end of 2004 and winning the Ian Rush Trophy in Wales with the Under-18s. In the final, Constantine's boys beat their counterparts from Botofogo, the famed Rio de Janeiro outfit.      
 
In terms of the major events in Asian football - the Asian Cup and the World Cup qualifiers - India did not fare so well.
 
They failed to get beyond the Preliminary Qualifying Round of the 2004 Asian Cup, losing out to DPR Korea.
 
And, in the 2006 World Cup qualifiers, the draw was not kind on India and Constantine's charges were grouped with Japan, the Asian Cup champions, Oman and Singapore.
 
India finished third in the group above Singapore and achieved one notable result, namely a 0-0 draw with Oman in Muscat last November. A couple of days prior to the Oman game, India beat Kuwait 3-2 in Kuwait City.
 
These two results, while not especially significant in terms of trophies and silverware, perhaps show more than anything else the progress made by India under Constantine.  
 
Small wonder, then, that the Englishman leaves the sub-continent satisfied with his work over the past three years.
 
"There is more interest in the sport from media, from fans and also from sponsors, which augurs well for the future," says Constantine.
 
"I feel that I have had three successful years in India and have done enough to prove my capabilities as a coach.

 

"I think most people would agree that Indian football is in a better state than it was a few years ago."