Mohun Bagan announced the name of their new manager José Francisco Molina (53) on Tuesday, 11th June 2024. He will be in charge of the team for the next season and has been contracted for a period of one year but it will definitely be extended if the club get their desired success in coming days.
Born in Valencia, Molina started playing professionally with modest UD Alzira, being purchased in 1991 by local giants Valencia CF. After a loan stint with neighbours Villarreal CF he was sold to Albacete Balompié. He made his La Liga debut on 8 January 1995. He was a brilliant goalkeeper and played in Atlético Madrid for most part of his professional career. He also represented his national team for 9 matches and included in the squad of Euro 1996 and 2000 he played a match against Norway in Euro 2000.
His managerial career began with his neighbourhood club Villarreal and he managed their C team in the year 2009. He also managed Villarreal senior team in 2011-12 season for 3 months. He then tried his luck in the Hong Kong, India and also in Mexico. He had a splendid success, a real benchmark of his managerial career so far with Hong Kong based club Kitchee who won the 3 major domestic triumphs and reached quarter final stage in AFC Cup. He has joined Spanish Federation as their sporting director in July, 2018 just after the World Cup where Spain lost to host Russia in round of 16. He then spent his tenure with Spanish Football till January 2023.
Initial speculation of Molina being appointed as the manager first heard in January this year when Juan Ferrando step down from his post. But Mohun Bagan then appointed their ever trusted Antonio Lopez Habas as the manager for the remaining of the season who was their Technical Director in that period.
José Molina’s appointment came as a surprise not only for the Mohun Bagan fans but lots of others. He previously spent 4 months in Indian Football and managed to win the ISL Trophy in 2016. Molina’s preferred formation would be 4-2-3-1 and he is known for his possession-based approach to football, emphasising control and dominance in the midfield. Unlike his predecessor Habas, who often employed a direct football strategy, Molina prefers his teams to dictate play and maintain a high level of ball possession. Although, Molina displayed not so attractive football last time but, he had really a short span of time to prepare his team. Molina said previously that to maintain possession based football you need technically sound players and enough time for preparing the team combination. This time we believe he will get his due time to prepare a team with high intensity football. Also with Molina we will definitely see some exciting players coming to India this season. As he being the top boss of the Spanish Federation lots of big names are surrounding in social media in respect to the green and maroon football.
We believe to have a splendid season ahead and the man in charge will definitely took us to the respective position in Asian football. Not only Mohun Bagan but whole of India Football really looking towards the continental glory this time.
