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The 2022-23 Hero I-League saw a two-horse race up top as RoundGlass Punjab FC ended up victorious becoming the first club from the league to gain promotion to the Indian Super League.
The Punjab side ended the season with 52 points, 10 more than their rival Sreenidi Deccan FC. They were also the club to have scored the highest number of goals in the league with 45 goals while conceding just 16, the second lowest in the league.
The valiant effort by the team saw them lift the trophy being unbeaten at home, winning 10 and drawing just one game.
On the way to lifting the trophy, the team also bagged all the individual awards - Highest Goal-scorer and Hero of the League, Slovenian Luka Majcen; Best Midfielder of the League, Spaniard Juan Mera; Best Keeper of the League, Kiran Kumar Limbu and Syed Abdul Rahim Best Coach of the League, Staikos Vergetis.
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Among all the players and coaches, the architect behind the historic run of the club is a Greek individual, Nikolaos Topoliatis, who entered the Indian football ecosystem back in 2019.
Working as the Football Director of RoundGlass Punjab FC, Nikolaos brought in the Greek coaching entourage to pursue his three-year-long dream - to lift the Hero I-League, which the last season came with an additional reward of getting promoted to the Hero ISL.
In any fairytale football story, it is often the coaches or the players who are at the centre of the show, but this time it was Nikolaos’ vision and planning which wrote history for the Punjab-based club. He was able to bring in experienced I-League players in the likes of Luka Majcen, Kiran Limbu, Chencho Gyeltshen, Juan Mera, and Deepak Devrani. At the same time, he was able to bring in four players on loan - who were key to the club’s title-clinching run.
It is often in front of the media that Sunny Singh, founder of RoundGlass, has expressed his vision of playing a brand of football which can inspire young kids in the state of Punjab and in the country to take up football. It was Nikolaos, who made the vision a reality by implementing the playing philosophy from the first team to the youth teams as recently, the U-15 side of RoundGlass Punjab FC finished third in the JSW Youth Cup whereas the U-13 side lifted the trophy.
Earlier last season, RoundGlass Punjab FC also won the Punjab State Super Football League, where the academy and the reserves players were provided with ample amount of game time.
Back in 2019, Nikolaos came to India having spent the majority of his career with Greek giant Olympiacos FC. A UEFA Pro License holder and UEFA Youth Coaches’ instructor Nikolaos was working as the Academy Technical Director of the Olympiacos academy where led the Under-20, Under-17, and Under-15 age groups to various championships domestically as well as in Europe.
Among the various coaching qualifications, Nikolaos also comes with an MSc in Sports Management from the University of Peloponnese which plays a vital role in him managing a team of individuals at the core of RoundGlass Punjab FC.
The Road Forward for RoundGlass Punjab FC
With RoundGlass Punjab FC’s Hero ISL fate depending on fulfilling the ICLS Premier 1 Licensing criteria, it will be interesting to see how the Punjab side works forward to build their squad. Nikolaos Topoliatis will have a very busy summer if he is to prepare a competitive squad for the next season of the Hero Indian Super League.
One major issue that the side from the land of five rivers could face is the lack of an A-grade stadium as their current home stadium is likely to fail the licensing criteria. It will also be interesting to see which stadium they chose to play in in order to fulfil the criteria.
Building an ISL squad, especially after coming in from the I-League will also be challenging as the quality of players especially foreign players will determine how they perform in the upcoming season. Nikolaos will look to learn from the side's Super Cup performance and plan the way forward accordingly. All in all exciting times could be back for football fans in Punjab.
