The next head coach of the Indian men’s football team will be announced on August 1 when the executive committee of the national federation meets next with Khalid Jamil emerging as the frontrunner for the job.

While Jamil appears to be the preferred candidate of the technical committee of the All India Football Federation (AIFF) in the short-list of three contenders, former India coach Stephen Constantine is also in contention for the top job.

“Yes, the executive committee is meeting on August 1 to take a decision on the men’s senior national team head coach. The members have been given the CVs of all the three shortlisted candidates and what they want as remuneration,” said a top official of the AIFF.

Given the AIFF’s financial constraints, Jamil will be the favourite to succeed Manolo Marquez as the new head coach. Since 48-year-old Jamil is currently with Indian Super League side Jamshedpur FC, he can immediately join and take up national team assignments. There is a FIFA international match window in September and India play their AFC Asian Cup qualifying round games on October 9 and 14, against Singapore home and away.

A former India mid-fielder and now an AFC Pro Licensed coach, Jamil was named the AIFF Coach of Year for 2023-24 and 2024-25 seasons. Marquez was in a dual role before parting ways with the AIFF earlier this month. He was head coach of ISL side FC Goa too.

But it is not yet clear whether Jamil will also perform dual role or whether he will leave his role at Jamshedpur FC if he gets the India assignment. “It’s the call of the executive committee and the members will take into account various factors,” an AIFF official said.

“A key takeaway from the deliberations was the shared view that appointing a coach with a deep understanding of the Asian and Indian football ecosystem would be highly beneficial to the national team’s immediate and future success,” the AIFF said on Saturday.

In terms of international experience, Constantine is way ahead of Jamil. He has been in charge of the Indian team twice earlier, from 2002 to 2005 and from 2015 to the Asian Cup in 2019. He has also coached East Bengal in the Indian Super League in 2022-23, and was till recently head coach of Pakistan. He earlier worked as head coach of countries like Nepal, Malawi and Rwanda.

The third name in the short-list sent to the executive committee by the AIFF technical committee, led by former captain IM Vijayan, is 52-year-old Stefan Tarkovic, who earlier coached the Slovakia national team from 2020 to 2022. He was also the Kyrgyzstan coach in 2023-2024.