Crispin Indian women’s team football coach

Dehradun: Former India youth team player Crispin Chettri has been appointed the national senior women’s team head coach with his first assignment to be the Pink Ladies Cup in Dubai from February 20-26, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) said on Sunday.

The 50-year-old Chettri played for the Indian youth team that toured Mauritius in 1999 and represented the national U-19 team at the 2000 AFC Youth Championship qualifiers held in Sri Lanka in 2000.

Currently, he is also the head coach of the Odisha FC in the Indian Women’s League (IWL), meaning that he will be in his dual coaching role. There will, however, be no IWL matches during the Pink Ladies Cup.

The tenure of Chettri with the national women’s team is also not known.

Last year, Chhetri’s tenure as Odisha FC head coach was extended for two more years after he guided the team to the title in the 2023-24 season.

The coaching role of the Indian women’s team has been of short tenure in the last year or so. Langam Chaoba Devi and Santosh Kashyap were at the helm in 2024 with a few matches under their charge after the two-year tenure of Swede Thomas Dennerby.

Another Swede Joakim Alexandersson was in charge of the team -- which was a mix of junior and senior players -- that played against Maldives in two FIFA international friendlies on December 30, 2024

and January 2, 2025.