Exclusive: I've given up hope of receiving Dronacharya Award – Churchill Brothers' TD Sukhwinder Singh

The legendary coach has a new challenge at Churchill Brothers

At Arrows too, there was hardly any pressure to get results and therefore Sukhwinder admitted that the task at Churchill Brothers will be much different.

“At JCT, I worked with some very good teams and produced impressive results. The Arrows was completely different as it was a developmental side. So at Churchill Brothers it will be different again and there will be differences in working conditions and management compared to JCT. But it is an I-League club after all and I have coached in the top flight for a long time so I hope we will work as a team here and achieve the targets,” Sukhwinder added.

One of the targets will be a good showing in the AFC Cup with the club owner Churchill Alemao and CEO Valanka Alemao publicly expressing his desire of seeing the club being successful in the continental stage.

Sukhwinder has achieved some big results against strong Asian teams with both JCT and the Indian national team. In 1996, his JCT side beat Iraq’s Karkh Club to win the IFA Shield and they also defeated another Iraqi outfit Oil Club to clinch the Durand Cup that year.

In 2001, Sukhwinder famously guided India to a 1-0 victory over UAE, who were then placed 64th in the FIFA Rankings, in a World Cup qualifier in Bangalore.

Clearly, the two-time Federation Cup winning coach has the know-how of getting results against strong Asian teams and thus, will be looking to enjoy the same success with Churchill Brothers also.

“It’s too early to comment on Asian competitions as we don’t know our opponents yet. But I do have international experience being a former India coach and I know Asian football very well so I am confident of good results on the Asian stage with Churchill Brothers as well,” he stated.

Besides some of those upset wins, Sukhwinder is also well known for mentoring and developing some of the best talents in the country with many of his students going on to become stars at domestic and international level like Sunil Chhetri, Karanjit Singh, Anwar Ali etc.

Sukhwinder’s longevity is also staggering as he even guided the India U-23 team to SAFF Cup success in 2009 and also reached the knockout stage of the 2010 Asian Games. However despite all those achievements, the legendary coach hasn’t yet been honoured with the highest award for sports coaches in the country, the Dronacharya Award.

“If I could have got the award, I would have got it a long time back. I don’t expect it anymore or have any ambition of winning it,” Sukhwinder said.