Indian FA fall victim to hoaxers after legendary former Barcelona duo 'apply' for national manager job

From Ali Dia’s 53-minute cameo for Southampton in 1996 to the so-called 'Fake Sheikh' who reeled in Sven-Goran Eriksson among others, football has always attracted its fair share of hoaxes.

The All India Football Federation (AIFF) can now add its name to those that have been the victim of pranksters following a couple of surprising job applications for the vacant India national team manager’s job.

Manolo Marquez left his role as the India boss earlier this month when he returned to his role as coach for Indian Super League side FC Goa and the feelers were put out by the AIFF for the job of leading the team ranked at number 133 in the world by FIFA.

Xavi and Guardiola hoax

The AIFF technical committee reviewed 170 job applications for the role, but two names would have really stood out.

That’s because they received submissions which claimed to be from former Barcelona midfielder and manager Xavi Hernandez, plus his former boss and current Manchester City chief Pep Guardiola.

This saw the Indian FA’s national team director last week confirm to the Times of India that Xavi was indeed a candidate after an application had been received from the 45-year-old’s official email address, but was not being considered for financial reasons.

The penny then clearly dropped that all was not as it seemed.

“The AIFF received an email furnishing the applications from Spanish coaches Pep Guardiola and Xavi Hernández,” the AIFF said. “The authenticity of their applications could not be confirmed, and it has since emerged that the email applications were not genuine,” the AIFF said.

The same report from the Times of India also contained a host of familiar - and perhaps more realistic - names who had applied, including former Leeds United and Liverpool winger Harry Kewell and ex-Blackburn Rovers boss Steve Kean.

A shortlist of three candidates has now emerged, with ex-India international player Khalid Jamil, two-times former India boss Stephen Constantine and ex-Slovakia manager Stefan Tarkovic all said to be in contention.

Xavi, who is yet to return to management since his four-year spell as Barça boss ended a year ago, is not in the running and will instead be more focused on changing his email password and brushing up on his cyber security.