Former player Langam Chaoba Devi set to be national women's football team coach

New Delhi: Former player Langam Chaoba Devi is set to take over as the national women's football coach after the I M Vijayan-led AIFF technical committee recommended her name for the position on Wednesday.

Fifty-one-year-old Devi, who captained the national side in the 1999 Asian Championships in Philippines, has earlier been an assistant coach of the Indian team. The Manipuri has also represented the country in the 1998 Bangkok Asian Games.

"After extensive deliberations, the committee recommended Ms. Langam Chaoba Devi as the head coach of the Indian senior women's national team", the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said in a statement.

Devi is the only female coach from the north-east region to have an AFC 'A' License coaching badge.

The recommendation is as good as an appointment given that the AIFF executive committee will approve it in its next meeting.

The technical committee meet, chaired by Vijayan, was held virtually and was attended by Pinky Bompal Magar, Shabbir Ali, Victor Amalraj, Santosh Singh, and Climax Lawrence.

Syed Sabir Pasha, the Technical Director of AIFF, was also present.

The committee also recommended Priya PV and Ronibala Chanu as the assistant and goalkeeping coaches respectively for the team.

All three coaches recommended by the Technical Committee did duty for the team during the Turkish Women's Cup in Alanya, Turkey, in February this year.

The committee also discussed the appointments of coaches for the men's U-16 and U-19 teams. After going through the applications received, the committee recommended the following names:

U-16 Men's National Team - Head Coach: Ishfaq Ahmed; Assistant Coach: Yan Cheng Law; Goalkeeping Coach: Mohammed Zakeer Hussain.

U-19 Men’s National Team - Head Coach: Ranjan Chaudhuri; Goalkeeping Coach: Sandip Nandy.