5 Best Foreign Players to play for Kerala Blasters
In 2014, the Indian Super League was started with an aim to improve the standards of football in India and one of the main ways to do that was to play with top talents from across the world. Most clubs signed foreign marquee players before the beginning of the inaugural season.
With players like Juventus Legend and UEFA Champions League winner Alessandro Del Piero, FIFA World Cup winner Joan Capdevila, Liverpool legend Luis Garcia, Arsenal legend and Premier League winner Freddie Ljungberg and many more arriving, it seemed like a party for Indian football fans.
Arguably, Kerala Blasters has had the biggest share in the influx of the high profile stars plying their trade in the league over the years. A lot of big names have joined the Kerala-based side during the past few years such as Iain Hume, David James, Pulga, Michael Chopra, Aaron Hughes, Courage Pekuson, Mark Sifneos, Wes Brown and Dimitar Berbatov. Kerala have finished in the top 4 of the ISL table twice in the first four years.
Many of these became household names in India while others were forgotten by the fans as soon as they could wipe some of these big-money signings from their memories.
Let's take a look at the five most successful foreign signings for Kerala Blasters.
#5 Antonio German
Antonio German came through the Queens Park Rangers academy but was never able to nail down a place in the squad and was sold to Stockport County when QPR was promoted to the English Premier League in the 2011-12 season.
The Grenada international scored 6 goals and provided 3 assists in 9 appearances in the 2015 season of the Indian Super League. The forward flopped in the next season as he wasn't able to find the back of the net in any of his 14 appearances. After that, he was moved on to Ebbsfleet United where he managed to make only one appearance.
The 26-year old currently plays for the I-League side Gokulam Kerala.