Panagiotis Dilmperis who recently joined Punjab FC as their new head coach for the Indian Super League 2024-25 season spoke about his move to the Punjab side and ISL. He said he is super excited to be in a country that also sees football as a religion which is a lot similar to him. He also revealed that he has been watching a lot of their games from previous seasons. He also expressed his belief that the league will only get better with time and also backed the Indian national team to claim great achievements in the coming five years.
“First of all, I have to say that I'm super excited because I'm in your country. I can easily see that football is for some people religion. They love football so much the way I do, and we match. And I have watched a lot of games from the previous season but also being a part of the Punjab FC during the Durand Cup, I can see the level. So the level is good and we have to thank first of all the founder, the Federation because they support this league and give a glamorous color to all the actions like today. And I can see easily that there are plenty of Indian talented players and at the same time, the criteria for foreign players are at a high level. So day by day, year by year I think this league will become better and better. I think that in the long term of five years, we will see the Indian national team to have great achievements,” said Panagiotis Dilmperis in an exclusive interview.
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Assessment of the squad
The former goalkeeper also gave his assessment of the Punjab squad and said he iikes how the management focuses on bringing quality to the side rather than quantity. He also talked about the challenge in front of him to take one step forward in comparison to their amazing performance in the previous yuear. He also thanked the management for providing a positive working atmosphere which will help him develop all the players around him.
“Punjab has a short story but it's moving forward every year, steps forward, quality steps forward. And I think they do care. They're more focused on quality than quantity. This is a great challenge on the other side for me because for this season, we have to do one step forward, comparing with the previous season that was also good, especially in the second half. And I have I'm really lucky because there is stuff that I have to thank, supporting me all the time. There's a huge organization behind us, round glass with all these actions that gives a nice healthy positive environment, working environment. And this is the first material that you can have as a coach and as a part of a team to develop yourself and develop all the other people around you,” he added.
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