Sanjoy Sen resigns as Prayag coach, Dutchman Eelco Schattorie to take charge

Sanjoy Sen has resigned as the head coach of Prayag United after being in charge for more than two seasons. For several weeks, sponsors Prayag were looking to appoint a foreign technical director above Sen with Dutch coach Eelco Schattorie making the final cut.

After a meeting on Wednesday, following Prayag’s goalless draw with Kalighat MS in the Calcutta Football League, Sen made it clear that he would not continue if a technical director is appointed, and thus gave his resignation.

Schattorie will now take over as head coach, but his date of arrival in India is yet to be confirmed and thus assistant coach Anjan Nath will be in charge for now.

“Our start to the season wasn’t great considering the quality of players we bought so that’s why we felt the need of a technical director, but he (Sen) didn’t accept that and has resigned. We thank him for his service to our club for nearly two and a half seasons,” Prayag United’s club director Nabab Bhattacharya told Sportskeeda.

High-spending Prayag were knocked out from the group stage of the Federation Cup, and have seven points from four I-League games.

Sen was appointed coach in 2010-11 with Subroto Bhattacharya as technical director and that season Prayag won the Durand Cup.

Last season, Prayag reached the Federation Cup semis and the final of the Durand Cup and IFA Shield. Sen was adjudged the best coach in the IFA Shield and was presented the ‘Rahim Saheb Trophy’.

He was always likely to be under pressure this season given that Prayag signed stars like Ranti Martins, Carlos Hernandez, Gouramangi Singh and Subrata Pal.

His replacement Schattorie unsurprisingly has an impressive CV, as the 40-year-old has had spells at Al Ettifaq (Saudi Arabia), Al Riffa Club (Bahrain), Muscat Club (Oman) and Red Bull Salzburg (Ghana).

It remains to be seen how quickly Schattorie adapts to Indian football as Prayag remain desperate to win the I-League after a summer of heavy investment.