As if Indian football was not already mired in enough controversy and crisis, the entire Xavi Hernandez hoax episode has served to further bemuse the country's sports lovers. The search for the India men's team head coach is currently on and former Barcelona coach Xavi's name began doing the rounds as a candidate, before the All India Football Federation (AIFF) clarified that the application was not genuine.
It has since emerged that a 19-year-old student at VIT Vellore was reportedly behind the prank. The student told The Telegraph that he "copy pasted" ChatGPT's response to a prompt “Write an email by Xavi Hernandez expressing his interest to coach the Indian football team,” and mailed it to AIFF.
Screenshots of the email were also shared, and have since gone viral on social media. Amid all the ridicule, the national football body issued a statement mentioning that they had received applications purportedly from Xavi as well as Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola, but both were fake.
"AIFF received an email furnishing the applications from Spanish coaches Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernandez. The authenticity of their applications could not be confirmed, and it has since emerged that the email applications were not genuine," the statement read.
Xavi has been without a team since being let go by Barcelona in June 2024. Guardiola, one of the top coaches in the sport, is under contract with City through June 2027.
India are looking to replace Spanish coach Manolo Marquez after he left the position by mutual consent earlier this month, following just one win in eight games, and less than a year in the job. AIFF said that it has narrowed a group of 170 applicants to three finalists.
These three shortlisted coaches are the experienced Anglo-Cypriot Stephen Constantine, Stefan Tarkovic of Slovakia and home-bred Khalid Jamil, according to a PTI report. "The technical committee zeroed in on three applicants and sent their names for consideration to the AIFF executive committee. The shortlisted candidates will be vetted by the AIFF executive committee which will take the final decision on who will be the coach," the report quoted a source as saying.
Former India international Renedy Singh's name as fourth candidate also did the rounds, as per the report, but an AIFF source said the Manipuri, who is currently the assistant coach of Bengaluru FC, was not among those shortlisted.
(With PTI inputs)
