MUMBAI: The high octane two day Hero MotoCorp Indian Super League (ISL) player draft saw Rs 24 crore being spent by teams for purchasing the players of their choice.
IMG Worldwide global business development football Jefferson Slack said, “We saw a vision three and a half years ago to help build football in India. The premise of which was based on the fact that Indians already are football fans. Partnerships with foreign clubs have brought in money and opportunities which we hope will help in the long run.”
Star network, which is the official broadcast partner for ISL is hopeful of a meaningful journey. Star India sports business head Nitin Kukreja said, “We are hoping to create a new ecosystem, a new league and help grow a second sport in India. We will use never seen before production values for this League.”
Day two of player draft saw the teams finally bidding for the best domestic talents for the last time. Delhi Dynamos picked Adil Khan, Manish Bhargav, Govind Singh, Jagroop Singh, Steven Dias, Anwar Ali and Manandeep Singh.
Atlectico de Kolkata selected Sanju Pradhan, Kinshuk Debnath, Lester Fernandes, Subhasish Roy Chowdhury, Baljit Sahni, Climax Lawrence and Nallappan Monhanraj.
Team Bengaluru chose Abhishek Das, Jayesh Rane, Abhijit Mondal, Anthony Barbosa, Dane Pereira, N P Pradeep and Jaison Vales from the pool.
Kerala Blasters went ahead and picked Avinabo Bag, Sandip Nandy, C.S Sabeeth, Luis Baretto, Milagres Gonsalves, Ramandeep Ringh and Renedy Singh.
Team Mumbai meanwhile decided to go with Rohit Mishra, Ishan Debnath, Nadong Bhutia, Asif Katiyal Peter Costa and Llalrin Fela.
Team Pune chose Deepak Devrani, Tapan Maity, Arindam Bhattarcharya, Anupam Sarkar, Pratik Shinde, Lalit Thapa and Mehrah Wadoo.
Team Goa will comprise Mandar Rao Desai, Romeo Fernandes, Peter Carvalho, Holicharan Narzary, Pronay Halder, Prabir Das and Rowilson Rodrigues from its I- league tie up with local clubs.
North East United football club too announced its team composition with Pritam Kumar Singh, Milan Singh, Robin Gurung, Allen Deory, Redeem Tlang, Seimeinlen Doungal and David Nghaite.
With the two day draft policy for domestic players getting over, the focus will shift to the teams now announcing some big international names for their respective squads.
