After repeated pleas from the J-K government, the Centre on Tuesday allowed football coach Juan Marcos Troia and his family to stay in Kashmir for another year.

The news has brought smiles to the faces of over a thousand prospective professional footballers who are registered with his academy — International Sports Academy Trust.

“I received a call from Delhi. I am happy that I have got a chance to continue my work,” Marcos said. “This would have been impossible without the intervention of the Chief Minister.”

Omar Abdullah, who had sent a strong recommendation for extension of visa for the coach and his family and also raised the issue with Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, said his government will now try to procure a longer stay for the coach.

The Union Home Ministry had recently ordered the deportation of Marcos and his family by the month-end.

Marcos arrived in the Valley along with his wife, Priscilla Barros Pedroso, and three daughters — Brisa, Dafne and Amanee — from Argentina in 2007. He took up the difficult challenge of training amateur schoolboys in the Valley. Today his team has qualified to play J-K’s top professional football league — the Super League — where the young players will be pitted against decades-old professional clubs run by various government departments and the J&K Bank.