‘The language of football is one’: Dermitzakis lays out his vision for Punjab FC

Despite not being completely comfortable speaking English, Pavlos Dermitzakis has never seen language as a barrier in football. For the Punjab FC head coach, the game itself provides the common language, and after 25 years as a professional coach, he believes what a manager shows and how he educates his players matter far more than the words he uses.

“I think that the language of football is one,” Dermitzakis told RevSportz. “The most important thing is not what you say, but what you show. And how you educate.”

The Greek coach, who took charge of Punjab FC ahead of the 2026-27 Indian Super League season, is preparing for his first campaign in Indian football. Dermitzakis comes to India with extensive experience in Greece and Cyprus, having managed clubs across different divisions, including PAOK, Veria, Panserraikos, AEL Larissa, Iraklis and Panionios. As a player, he operated primarily as a centre-forward and scored 106 goals in 327 professional appearances between 1987 and 2000.

His first impressions of Punjab FC have been positive. The club’s structure and the work done over the years by its Greek technical staff were among the things that attracted him to the project.

He credited the work of former technical director Nikos Topoliatis and the club’s previous Greek coaches for helping build a strong foundation. “The club is very well organised,” Dermitzakis said, adding that he was happy to have the opportunity to “add his piece of the puzzle” and help Punjab FC move to the next level.

The preparations for the new season are already well underway. At the time of the interview, Punjab had entered the fifth week of pre-season, with Dermitzakis focused on building a team around a clear identity.

“Our goal is to build a team which is going to play good football, with a specific philosophy,” he said. “To be able to enjoy, first of all, us and for sure the fans that are going to watch the games.”

Careful recruitment, with a clear plan

Punjab FC have made a number of additions ahead of the new season, combining players with ISL experience and those arriving from overseas. Dermitzakis said the recruitment has been carried out carefully, keeping the club’s transfer budget in mind.

The club brought in players such as Alfred Planas and Messi Bouli, who already have experience of playing in the ISL, while Patrick Bahanack joined after playing in Cyprus. Indian players Gurkirat Singh and Mohammad Inam have also been added to the squad.

Dermitzakis expects a few more additions before the squad is complete, but recruitment is only one part of his vision for Punjab FC.

The bigger focus, he believes, has to be on the players coming through the club’s academy.

Academy at the heart of Punjab’s project

Punjab FC have invested heavily in their youth structure, and Dermitzakis sees that as one of the most important aspects of the club. He revealed that around 40 per cent of the current first-team squad is made up of players who have come through the academy.

“The base is the academies,” he said. “Something that Punjab FC is working on at a high level.”

For Dermitzakis, academy development is not just about strengthening one club. He believes it is directly connected to the future of Indian football and the national team.

“If we want to develop the championship, the ISL, and also to develop the national team of India, we have to develop the base,” he said.

The coach was particularly impressed by the number of young players who have already made their way into the senior set-up and by the success enjoyed by Punjab’s age-group teams in recent seasons.

He also pointed to the club’s training infrastructure and its efforts to bring young players from different parts of India into the system. According to Dermitzakis, the aim is not simply to produce footballers, but to develop them as people as well.

His ambition is to eventually have three or four academy graduates regularly involved in the senior team. “Only this thing, you can understand that the club is on the right way,” he said.

Can India solve their striker problem?

The lack of Indian centre-forwards has been a recurring talking point in Indian football, and Dermitzakis believes the structure of the ISL is a reason why young Indian forwards find it difficult to get opportunities.

With clubs generally using their foreign-player slots in attacking areas, Indian strikers and forwards often have fewer chances to play regularly.

“The chances that the Indian strikers or forwards get in general are less because every team will bring foreigners for strikers,” Dermitzakis explained.

For him, however, the answer is not simply about changing the rules. It starts with education and development from a young age.

“The solution is education,” he said, stressing the need to identify players with the right characteristics for the position and then give them the appropriate training and development.

That philosophy fits closely with Punjab FC’s long-term plans. The club’s stated ambition, according to Dermitzakis, is to gradually build a squad dominated by Indian players.

“When the club and the president of the club say that in the next few years the team must be made up of Indian players, we are forced to enter this plan and follow this plan,” he said. “It is not easy for sure, but it can be done. But first we need to support everybody.”

That long-term approach could become one of the defining features of Dermitzakis’ time in Punjab. For now, though, his immediate task is to build a competitive team for the new ISL season.

And while the language may sometimes be different inside the dressing room, Dermitzakis is confident that the football will bring everyone together.

“I see that we have a very good team,” he said. “We have footballers who are good receivers. They are hungry to learn things.”

His final message was clear: “Me and my coaches will give our souls to create a competitive team that will respect itself first and for sure will respect football.”

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