Following a decade-long playing career spent predominantly with Manchester United, Coppell enjoyed managerial stints with Crystal Palace, Manchester City and Reading, among others. So what possessed him to travel to make India's Kerala Blasters his latest stop?
Season No.3 of the Indian Super League (ISL) kicked off last weekend, with big crowds across the country once again flocking to the opening fixtures of the glitzy competition.
The biggest of them all was in southern India, where Kerala Blasters hosted inaugural champions Atletico de Kolkata in front of 54,000 spectators and lost 1-0. That made it back-to-back defeats for the wildly popular Blasters and their coach, former Manchester United star and long-serving Crystal Palace coach, Steve Coppell.