Kolkata: Mohun Bagan announces 47-year-old José Antonio Vicuña Ochandorena the new head coach for the forthcoming season. The Polish-Spanish gaffer replaces Khalid Jamil after his dismal show in the previous season.
The new coach doesn’t have an attractive CV but last managed Polish first-tier club, Wisla Plock. He finished 4th in Polish Ekstraklasa in the last season. Commonly known as ‘Kibu’, is a Pro-licensed coach.
Vicuña has a wealth of experience of coaching in Spain and Poland. He won the Polish League and the Polish Cup in 2012-13 as part of Legia Warsaw coaching staff. In 2015-16, he won the Polish Super Cup as part of the Lech Poznań coaching staff. He has worked extensively as an assistant with Jan Urban, an experienced Polish coach who represented Poland in 1986 World Cup. He was an integral part of Legia Warsaw coaching team which was beaten in the final playoff round of UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE and subsequently played UEFA EUROPA LEAGUE group stage in 2013-14.
He has coached prominent footballers like Raul Garcia, César Azpilicueta, Nacho Monreal and Javi Martinez. He was involved with youth teams of former La Liga club CA Osasuna. He has acquired several Professional Coaching Titles from Spanish Football Federation such as Professor of Tactics, Master of Physical Preparation etc.
Directors of Mohun Bagan FC Srinjoy Bose & Debashish Dutta commented while announcing the new coach – “We have spoken with Kibu and he is happy and excited about the challenges of coaching in Mohun Bagan”. They added that “Kibu has the ability, knowledge and experience. He promotes young players and has a style and a way of working similar to ours. He has a philosophy of the game that is very much like Mohun Bagan’s philosophy and is a hard worker. Also, he is passionate about applying advanced technology to both training and matches.”