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Former Australian hockey star Jay Stacy will be the new coach of Dabang Mumbai for the 2016 Hockey India League. The illustrious midfielder, who held the record of being the most capped Australian men hockey player for a long time before his record was broken by Jamie Dwyer earlier this year, will replace German Valentin Altenburg, who coached the Mumbai outfit in the last edition of the league.
He was also named the German senior team's head coach a couple of weeks before the Hockey World League Final concluded in Raipur recently.
Dabang Mumbai, owned by DoIT Sports Management India Pvt. Ltd, were on the lookout for Altenburg’s replacement and finally zeroed in on Stacy, who donned the Australian jersey in four consecutive Olympics – 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000.
The Australian is expected to arrive in Mumbai on January 7 before the team kicks off their preparatory camp for the 2016 HIL. “Jay Stacy is arriving on January 7 and Dabang Mumbai’s camp will begin from January 8 and run till January 17,” informed Dabang Mumbai team manager Vernon Lobo.
It is learnt that the German hockey federation wanted Altenburg to focus on the national team’s preparations for the 2016 Rio Olympics although he himself was keen to step in for the HIL.
The Mumbai franchise will be looking to turn over a new leaf after pretty disappointing performances in the first three editions of HIL. They finished at the bottom of the table in two of the three editions and will be keen to make it to the knockout phase this time around.
Dabang Mumbai have quite a few players who could make a serious dent in the opposition. Among its ranks are the talented German forward Florian Fuchs and the Australian duo of Kieren Govers and Mathew Swann. They can also count on the services of talented defender Gurmail Singh, who was picked for $81,000,and talented players in Harmanpreet Singh and Nikkin Thimmaiah.
