I-League 2020: Aizawl FC Head Coach Stanley Rozario tests positive for Covid-19

Veteran coach and current Aizawl FC gaffer Stanley Rozario has tested positive for coronavirus, the football club confirmed on Thursday.

The I-League club, who finished 10th after a troubled and disruptive 2019-20 season, posted an official statement on the club’s twitter handle that read: “Our head coach Mr. Henry Stanley Rozario has tested positive for Covid-19 and has shown symptoms like fever and cough. He has been admitted to a hospital for further treatment. We pray and wish him a speedy and full recovery.”

The 60-year-old former Indian National Team assistant coach is a very well-respected figure in the Indian footballing circuit with over 15 years of professional service at various domestic clubs.

https://twitter.com/AizawlFC/status/1306651246950924289

The Bangalore-born Rozario has most notably helmed traditional bigwigs like East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Salgaocar apart from short stints with varying degrees of success at Shillong Lajong, United Sikkim, Eagles FC and Bharat FC. He has also worked as the director of youth development at Ozone Football Academy in the 2nd division I-League. In January 2019, he took over as the head coach at Aizawl FC.

Although the 2019-20 campaign was quite underwhelming for the Mizo outfit, Coach Rozario had time and again stressed that had the I-League season been completed as per the original schedule, they would have been positioned much higher in the league table owing to the string of home matches that they were left to feature in.

The 2016-17 I-League champions have recently retained two of their key foreign imports, Alfred Jaryan and Richard Kassaga, and the team would have been looking forward to a positive pre-season having completed the signing of two new domestic players from Chanmari FC, David Laltlansanga and Vanlalghenga. However, the news of the coach’s positive Covid test is sure to dampen the mood in the camp ahead of the start of the season sometime in November.

We at The Bridge hope he makes a complete recovery soon and is back on the field training his young charges in no time.