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'Bobby Houghton' (born 1949) is an English football (soccer) manager and former player, currently the head coach of the Indian national team.
During his playing career, Houghton was a midfielder for Fulham (1966-69) and Brighton & Hove Albion (1969-70).
Houghton was one of the youngest coaches ever to manage in English senior football, being appointed player manager of Hastings United in the Southern League at only 21. Following his departure as Maidstone United coach, he became the manager of Swedish top flight side Malmö FF in 1974, and, against all odds, in 1979 guided the team to the European Cup final against Nottingham Forest F.C., narrowly losing 1-0. Along with Roy Hodgson he is widely regarded as being responsible for the transformation of Swedish football into a world power ^[1]
Houghton was the first head coach of the Colorado Rapids in 1996, in the first season of Major League Soccer in the USA. He was fired after one season, and then became the Chinese national team's first foreign head coach in over four years, replacing Qi Wusheng, who failed to lead China to qualify for the 1998 FIFA World Cup.
Within weeks, Houghton was able to memorise the names of all his players, a rare feat in foreign coaches, and helped build the team's confidence and self-belief. China were placed second in the Dynasty Cup very shortly after Houghton took over, and he developed a reputation for being able to implement an effective technical football program for struggling teams. After failing to qualify for the Olympic football tournament, Houghton was replaced as manager of the Chinese national team in 2000.
Houghton has also managed at Bristol City, Al Ittihad in Saudi Arabia twice (1984-86 and again in 1993), the Toronto Blizzard (1983 and 1984) in the North American Soccer League, Örgryte IS (1987-89), Malmö FF again in 1992, FC Zurich and the Uzbekistan national football team.
The All India Football Federation appointed him as the head coach of the Indian Football team from June 20, 2006. Indian Football seems to be benefitted visibly as some matches show. http://www.rediff.com/sports/2007/aug/23ind.htm
His latest achievement as the Indian team's coach has been winning the Nehru cup on 29th August, 2007 which has been India's first major success in international football after many years.

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Reference

External links

★ FIFA article on Bobby Houghton's assignment to the Chinese Football Association

Reference

1. http://football.guardian.co.uk/worldcup2006/story/0,,1800194,00.html