Atletico keep Antonio Lopez Habas for the second Indian Super League season

Atletico de Kolkata

Kolkata, May 15 (IANS)

Taking a step towards building their team for the upcoming second edition of the Indian Super League, holders Atletico de Kolkata on Friday announced they have signed head coach Antonio Lopez Habas for one more year while roping in seasoned Indian players Clifford Miranda and Syed Rahim Nabi.

In a statement, the ISL franchise said the list of new entrants includes three other Indians namely Jewel Raja, Sushil Kumar Singh and Nadong Bhutia.

The list of new dynamic entrants to don the red and white jersey will be Raja, Singh, Nabi, Nadong Bhutia, and Miranda who have all played for different teams in the first edition of Indian Super League held last year.

Besides, the red and gold jerseys retained Denzil Franco, Mohan Raj Nallapan, Baljit Singh and Arnab Mandal.

"At Atletico de Kolkata we have been planning for the forthcoming season for a while now and we are sure that the new crop of players along with the players retained from last year will create a difference in the end results for the team again.

"Our head coach and the management have made some prudent choices which will enable football lovers to enjoy the season to the fullest. The overall experience of the players we have selected today is a rich blend of experience along with diversity in their styles of playing the game," team co-owner Sanjiv Goenka said in a media release issued by the club.

Co-owner Utsav Parekh said the players have been selected in tune of the club's strategy of building a competitive team.