ISL 2017: 5 ISL champions who are ridiculously undervalued in the draft
The fourth edition of the Indian Super League will be held over five months and will comprise ten teams after the addition of Jamshedpur FC and Bengaluru FC. ISL 2017 is just around the corner and the auction of the players is just a couple of days away.
The ISL announced earlier this week that the player draft for the fourth season will be held on July 23 in Mumbai and will feature all ten clubs. The domestic draft for the fourth edition of ISL will have 200 Indian players.
According to the draft rules, there should be a minimum of 15 and a maximum of 18 Indian players in a squad, which includes two players from U-21. Each of the franchises has been allowed to retain two of the senior players from their 2016 squad, in addition to retaining up to three U21 players to fill up the development player quota.
22 players have been retained by eight of these franchises. Jamshedpur FC, being the newest team as such, will start with a clean slate while 2016 semi-finalists Delhi Dynamos have decided not to retain any of their players.
There are players who have already tasted the ISL success in the past but this time, their values have gone down drastically which makes them good bargains for plenty of ISL clubs. Let’s have a look at five players who have been champions before but failed to fetch a better price tag this time out.
Robert Lalthlamuana
Robert played for Atletico de Kolkata in last year’s ISL and the Kolkata outfit became the champions. Robert, who plays as a left back, made nine appearances for ATK last year. He played some good football for the two-time champions.
Despite all these, his value has been set at Rs 25 lakhs for the current season. Robert started off his top level career with Churchill Brothers and then moved to Kolkata giants East Bengal in 2011. In 2014, he signed for Delhi Dynamos on loan and they kept him for the following season as well. In 2016, he joined ATK, again on loan from Delhi Dynamos, ending up as champions.
Under ATK’s Spanish coach Jose Molina, Robert bloomed and got starts in few of the games as well. Somehow, his performance could not impress others and he has to remain satisfied with a base price of 25 lakhs this year.