Kamal Ghorui
New Delhi: Iranian Saeid Abbaszadeh has applied for the Indian wrestling coaching job in the Greco-Roman discipline amid the escalating crisis in West Asia. TOI has learnt that Abbaszadeh, who has over 15 years of experience mentoring wrestlers in the Philippines, Iraq and Thailand, showed interest in coaching India’s grapplers as Iran is embroiled in war. The 42-year-old Iranian’s application remains pending before the Sports Authority of India (SAI) for approval after the Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) finalised his name. Once the formal contract is signed between Abbaszadeh and SAI, the Iranian will join the national set-up next month. His proposed salary has been fixed at $3,000 per month (approx Rs 2.5 lakh). The federation wanted Abbaszadeh to join before the forthcoming Senior Asian Championships in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, from April 6 to 12, but that was delayed due to administrative reasons. His contract is expected to run until the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028. Similarly, Bajrang Punia’s former coach Shako Bentinidis (in pic) has been finalised to guide the men’s freestyle wrestlers into the LA Olympics cycle at a monthly pay scale of $3,000 (approx Rs 2.5 lakh). The Georgian played an instrumental role in guiding Bajrang to an Asian Games medal in 2018, a third-place finish at the 2019 World Championships and bronze at the Tokyo Games in 2020. Bentinidis had ended his association with Bajrang in 2021. For the women’s wrestlers, the WFI has zeroed in on the American Ian Butler, a two-time World Championships medallist. He is also a Pan American silver medallist and a multiple Open champion across global combat sports platforms. He has worked internationally with Team USA and Team Canada as the head coach. According to WFI sources, it took a lot of time convincing Butler to take up the women’s wrestling reins as the chief foreign coach after he originally quoted an astronomical sum of $25,000 per month as his salary (approx Rs 20.8 lakh). After negotiations, the coach agreed to $8,000 remuneration per month (approx Rs 6.6 lakh). After a long gap, the federation invited applications from foreign coaches in September last year.
