Goa should have just one football team: Zico

Instead of three teams playing top tier football from Goa in India, the soccer-crazy state should have just one team like FC Goa, football legend Zico said on Tuesday, adding that the merging of clubs would help in development of young players and raise the game at the grassroots level.

Zico, who is the coach of Indian Super League (ISL) franchise FC Goa, also hinted that his philosophy of playing attacking football would continue this year too. FC Goa reached the semi-finals of the tournament last year.

"We have good teams here in Goa like Sporting, Dempo, Salgaocar, and one idea that I gave is that, it should be just one good team just like FC Goa, but I know that is difficult," Zico said.

Commenting about the contours of a potential FC Goa youth development programme, Zico said that it was difficult, considering there is no continuity because of the short nature of the ISL season.

"I have thought about it but it is very difficult not just for FC Goa but for the eight teams of the ISL because when we finish the ISL all the teams dismantle and the players go to their own clubs. I think we should think of something to give continuance to this programme so that we can join everything and prepare with the grassroots programme," Zico said.

Asked about the recruitment of four Brazilians players by FC Goa for the second edition of ISL, Zico said, that his philosophy of football was to attack.

"I think every trainer has to adapt to the style of playing with the players that we have. Last year we had just one Brazilian, but we had adopted the style of playing that everyone liked. It was my philosophy," he added.

"My philosophy is always to win, always play to score and that's what we showed last year. Even when the results did not come the way that we expect, we always saw the team, shoot more, attack more, so, it is always the characteristics of my team," Zico said.

The second edition of the Indian Super League gets underway in October.