Floyd Pinto: The prodigy of preparing youth talents in Indian football

The man who turned the dreams of Indian Arrows to reality, the Indian prodigy of preparing youth talents in football ft. Floyd Pinto.



It was an honour for the whole team of SportsKindle to interview such an iconic personality like Floyd Pinto and all thanks to our very own, Pramit Mishra who made this happen. Here we present his exclusive journey in coaching through his words.



Q. You were an IT Engineer by profession but later, you changed your profession to the field of coaching. So, how did this happen?

Floyd Pinto : I have always been a sports enthusiast since my childhood days. I had a keen interest in all sorts of sports during those days. I have even played and represented my school, college and engineering college as well. But to be honest, I belong from an Indian middle class family and so, it was quite difficult for me to pursue a professional career in the field of sports.

So, it all started when I passed out of St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai and got into Don Bosco Engineering college. At that time, our college had a one of the best teams in football. We had players training at club like Mahindra and football was that one sport, which fascinated me the most.

This was how I got into here. Infact, I was a big fan of English Premier League and as we all know, the head coach there is called the manager and it got stuck into my mind that, “Yes, I want to be a manager of a professional football team”. So, I started doing research on it and Father Adolf of Don Bosco was the one who encouraged me to urge forward.

In the mean time, I got in contact with five universities of UK where I applied for a course in Sports Management but I didn’t go there since, it would have forced me into the management section rather than the coaching profession.

Then, I started searching for courses to acquire a professional coaching license. But, I got into a job at ICICI and signed a 15th months-contract with them. During that contract period, fortunately, once again with the help of Father Adolf, I got appointed as a part-time coach at the Kenkre Football Club in Mumbai which used to train at the Shivaji Park.

This was how I got my first break, and with each passing day, I developed the confidence that this was the place where I wanted to be. After my 15th months-contract got over, I joined Kenkre football club as their full-time coach this was where, my professional journey started.

I had a talk with the CEO of the club, Mr. Joshua and at that time, got a strong desire to go to UK and get my professional coaching license. So, I went to UK for the first time and got my FA Level I and FA Level II which was equivalent to a C License in India. But during those day, it wasn’t easy to equate a FA to AFC License.

I returned to India and joined a C License course which was going on in Mumbai at that time. It was the year 2011, when I got my first AFC License. There was no opportunity in India for a B License at that time. I decided to do a FA International License which was a fast track for Non-UK coaches to receive a license that was equivalent to UEFA B License.

This course opened my eyes to a new perspective of coaching, totally different from the one, I was accustomed with. After coming back to India, I got to know that there was a B License course going in Mizoram. I immediately went there as it was very important for my coaching career.

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