Bora milutinovic

Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu: The Indian men's football team started its first training session of 2024, in Doha, Qatar, on a bullish note, their confidence boosted by a chat with one of the greatest coaches the sport has ever seen. It was a rather pleasant surprise for the boys on New Year's Day when former itinerant coach Bora Milutinovic from Serbia visited them.

Milutinovic, who may be well past his glory days, is renowned in the football world as the only coach to take five teams to the World Cup. Milutinovic has coached Mexico (1986), Costa Rica (1990), United States of America (1994), Nigeria (1998), and China (2002) to five consecutive FIFA World Cups.

Born in Yugoslavia, during the latter stages of World War II, Milutinovic commands massive respect from the footballing community in the Balkans and was immediately greeted by India head coach Igor Stimac, along with fitness coach Luka Radman and goalkeeping coach Frano Srdarev.