MARGAO
FC Madras appointed former India Junior coach Kanan Priolkar coach of the U-17 youth team on a one-year deal.
Expressing excitement on his new role as FC Madras assistant coach Priolkar commented: “I’m so happy to be part of the FC Madras family. It is a big honour to work with FC Madras."
Priolkar who was a coach at AIFF for four years now fought his way back from some major setbacks in his footballing career.
“My vision is to have long-term goals, especially on development at the grassroot level. It’s more important for me to build a strong set-up for youth development and grassroot. Every year we should bring more talent and bring more players from our youth development program to the main team. That will be our big vision in the upcoming years. We will have a proper scouting and structure program to bring more local talents from Tamil Nadu. I have seen the structure and they set up a professional approach and was impressed with their facilities" Priolkar explained.
While under normal circumstances he would have gone on to play a few more years, the forward was forced into early retirement due to a recurring knee injury, something that prevented him from joining the India U-21 camp, earlier in his career; this was to be the only occasion when he was called up to the National Team.
“My knee had recovered after the surgery, but I was yet to get back to full fitness. And we did not really have physios to help us speed-up the recovery process back in those days,” said Priolkar. “I had joined the camp for the first couple of days, but then I soon realised that I was a long way off, so I told the coaches that I needed more time for the knee to heal.”
The 47-year old was part of then Sesa Sports Club in his early days and developed a formidable partnership up front, alongside former India international Alvito D’Cunha. However, the stay at Sesa was short-lived, as the club shut down in 1999 and became a dedicated to the football academy.
However, it was when he moved to Dempo SC for a couple of seasons, that he started his first partnership with Bibiano Fernandes, who is currently the head coach of the India U-15 side. Having played for Sporting Clube de Goa, in his last five years of top-flight football, Priolkar went on to ply his trade in the local leagues.
After he hanging up his boots, Kanan coached the junior teams at Vasco SC, Brazil Football Academy, Cavelossim and Dempo.
