I-League transfers: Mohun Bagan rope in Spanish defender Fran Morante
Mohun Bagan have roped in Spanish central defender Francisco Morante Martínez, also known as Fran Morante for the upcoming 2019/20 season. This is the first foreign player signing in this summer for the ‘Mariners’ after they parted ways with each of the overseas players following the end of the previous season.
Fran Morante has featured in the Secundra Division 'B' for Internacional de Madrid in the 2018-19 seasons and featured in 28 matches scoring a couple of goals too.
The 26-year-old has played 27 league matches and a single Copa Del Rey encounter. He previously played for Spanish clubs like Cordoba CF, Granada CF B, CD Badajoz and Real Murcia. Fran is known for his good positioning, string aerial presence and also provides stability in defence. The Spaniard will be joining the likes of Dhanachandra Singh and Ashutosh Mehta to form the back four.
Mohun Bagan have been very busy in the season break so far, having signed Spanish coach Kibu Vicuna and his assistant Tomas Tchorz along with other technical staff. The former I-League champions have also secured the services of Michael Johnson Abotsi, as their new physical trainer. The 45-year-old from Ghana has vast experience in strength and conditional coaching in various countries.
Dipankar Chowdhury is their new goalkeeping coach who has completed AFC C license coaching certificate and also AFC Goalkeeping level-1 certification was named as the goalkeeping coach. Apart from these, Mohun Bagan were also successful in signing their ex-player and I-League winning custodian Debjit Majumder along with former East Bengal player Suhair VP.
Mohun Bagan had a disappointing 2018/19 I-League season having finished at the fifth position in the league table, which was their worst performance since they claimed the title back in 2015.