Steven Gerrard’s appointment as head coach of the Saudi Arabia-based Ettifaq FC was also cleared by an individual having a connection with Indian football.

Eelco Schattorie, a known figure in Calcutta footballing circles owing to his tenure with United SC and East Bengal, and also a former coach of Kerala Blasters in the ISL, had interviewed Gerrard during the selection process in his capacity as Ettifaq’s technical director.

Gerrard, after an impressive start to his coaching career with Glasgow Rangers, was axed from Aston Villa last October after just 11 months in charge. Schattorie agreed the job won’t be too easy for the former England midfielder in “a completely different culture”, but he trusts Gerrard’s coaching philosophy.

“I interviewed three big names and Gerrard was one of them. He left a very good impression with his presentation and is also interested in working with the youth.

“He has a good staff backing him. But of course he needs to prove himself. He did a good job with Rangers. With Aston Villa, he couldn’t achieve much, but he has a good philosophy which he explained after I asked him a lot of questions in order to know him better,” Schattorie told The Telegraph from Dubai.

“With his experience and background as a professional footballer, he can use it to good effect while I have to help him adapt to a completely different culture. In our club, it will be hard work with the (player) recruitment we have to do while also having to deal with our contracted players. The balance of our team has to be restored and we are going to work on that.

“So it’s going to be a big task. But I have full trust in Steven to bring success to our club and hope I can also benefit from his knowledge,” the Dutchman, in his sixth stint for Ettifaq, said.

Saudi clubs, of late, have been in the news as quite a few big names in world football have gone on to join them. But for Schattorie, Indian football continues to occupy a special place, although he isn’t too pleased with most of the clubs’ attitude towards youth academies.

“I think individual players may have developed over the years. But overall I still don’t see clubs investing in youth academies. I still think many clubs are lacking that infrastructure.

“In the long run, you won’t make too much progress. Individual players that are now available will progress when playing with foreigners in the ISL.

“The ISL is a decent competition, but you need to bring people up from the grassroots.

“ If you don’t have enough clubs with good youth academies, you’ll be stuck at a certain level,” Schattorie explained.