Raman Vijayan has a wealth of experience of having played in the National Football League for top teams such as East Bengal, Md. Sporting, Mahindra United, FC Kochi and Dempo for 10 years from 1996. With his playing days behind him, Raman has made a successful transition to coaching and has fared pretty well in that department, too.
The 41-year-old, who has coached teams in Bangalore, made his debut as a coach for a senior division team in the Chennai Football Association league, Chennai FC. “I came in as the coaching staff when Varun Tripuraneni (in-charge of Chennai FC) asked me to take charge of the team. And I told him about the need to have a pre-season camp for the boys, and he immediately agreed,” said Raman, after Chennai FC shocked Arrows 1-0.
Chennai FC had a 25-day camp at Adhiyamaan College of Engineering in Hosur and then again at JJ Engineering College (Tiruchi) for 22 days. Raman also picked players of his choice, and the former International player feels that the camp has done a world of good for the players. “It has enabled the players to understand each other. There is lot of difference in the way they play,” he said.
Raman insisted that Tamil Nadu is not short of talent and the drawback is that there has not been a platform to showcase talent. “There is not much awareness on professionalism. Our desire is to build a professional team which will be a model for other clubs, one which will sport a different brand of football, have a different attitude,” said Raman, who has three years experience of coaching the super division teams in Bangalore such as Bharat Earth Mover Limited (BEML) and South United Club.
