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Football

Pune coach gets UEFA B license in Wales

Ryan Roy Shah took an unconventional route on his football coaching journey.

Pune coach gets UEFA B license in Wales
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Ryan Roy Shah has followed up on his AIFF coaching license by getting one from UEFA too.

By

Triyasha Chatterjee

Published: 25 Aug 2022 11:13 AM GMT

Who does not want to upgrade themselves from playing 'manager mode' on FIFA to become a football coach in real life? But not many have taken as unorthodox a route to getting there as Pune-based Ryan Roy Shah. This coach recently became one of the few Indians to get the highly-coveted UEFA B license - an European degree to follow up on his AIFF D license.

This degree allows holders to be head coaches of men's amateur clubs, youth teams up to age 16, and assistant coaches for professional clubs.

Speaking on his unconventional route, Ryan said, "The AIFF courses focus a lot on the coaching process and how you identify problems. The European courses are more practical in nature and more open to your ideas and how you want to achieve them."

Currently spearheading Pune Pioneers FC, a grassroots football club, as Club Director along with looking after the school sports programmes at Kalpa Vriksha Academy, The Wonder School and The Indian Football Portal, Ryan is also on the core team of The Association of Indian Football Coaches and Sports Entrepreneurs Foundation.

Speaking on why the country's top football leagues are dominated by foreign coaches, he said Indian coaches are not up to the mark because they have not had enough exposure.

"Indian coaches have a lack of innovation, but it's not their fault. The exposure they've had has been limited because, in terms of coaching education, they've gone into a course and that's where they've probably picked up how to break down the game. It hasn't been in their playing days because people don't look at football that way here. They don't have their own independent game model, and that is probably where the lack of creativity stems from, but that is changing gradually," he said.

About to complete his Master's degree in Sports Science & High Performance next month, next on this coach's target are the UEFA A and AFC B licences.

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