ISL 2017: Which team has the most number of Indian national team players
The 2017-18 Indian Super League kick starts in less than three months' time and teams are gearing up to challenge for the title in what will be the biggest ISL season ever. As is the case with almost every top level football league in the world, sending a team out on the pitch on a match day isn't the be all and end all of the proceedings.
Weeks and months of thoughtful consideration are put into the recruitment of players and coaching personnel, and preparation for the match day starts well before people actually start talking about it. To that end, ISL clubs have had two different windows to sign players for the 2017-18 season, which will be bloated by the addition of two new teams and an extended schedule.
The draft process for Indian players was reserved for a single day, 23rd July, while the rest of the transfer window has so far been spent by the ten franchises in filling up their foreign player quota. Eight foreign players are the maximum allowable limit, while 17 is the limit for Indian players.
Indian players, too, have grown in stature over the years, as evidenced by ISL clubs shelling out huge sums on Indian internationals. Without further ado, let's look at the ten ISL clubs and what have they acquired in terms of Indian national team players for ISL 2017-18. We start from the bottom with FC Goa.
#10 FC Goa
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 3
Indian internationals in the squad: Narayan Das, Pronay Halder, Manvir Singh
#9 Delhi Dynamos
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 4
Indian internationals in the squad: Pritam Kotal, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Seityasen Singh, Romeo Fernandes
#8 ATK
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 5
Indian internationals in the squad: Eugeneson Lyngdoh, Keegan Pereira, Robin Singh, Anwar Ali, Augustin Fernandes
#8 NorthEast United
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 5
Indian internationals in the squad: Holicharan Narzary, Rowllin Borges, Nirmal Chettri, Lalrindika Ralte, Robert Lalthlamuana
#8 FC Pune City
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 5
Indian internationals in the squad: Jewel Raja, Adil Khan, Isaac Vanmalsawma, Baljit Sahni, Lalchhuanmawia
#8 Jamshedpur FC
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 5
Indian internationals in the squad: Anas Edathodika, Subrata Pal, Mehtab Hossain, Bikash Jairu, Sumeet Passi
#4 Bengaluru FC
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 7
Indian internationals in the squad: Harmanjot Khabra, Alwyn George, Lenny Rodrigues, Sunil Chhetri, Udanta Singh, Daniel Lalhlimpuia, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
#4 Kerala Blasters
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 7
Indian internationals in the squad: Rino Anto, Jackichand Singh, Milan Singh, Arata Izumi, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury, Sandesh Jhingan, CK Vineeth
#2 Mumbai City FC
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 8
Indian internationals in the squad: Balwant Singh, Arindam Bhattacharya, Aiborlang Khongjee, Sanju Pradhan, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Amrinder Singh, Sehnaj Singh, Raju Gaikwad
#1 Chennaiyin FC
Number of Indian internationals in squad: 10
Indian internationals in the squad: Jeje Lalpekhlua, Jerry Lalrinzuala, Dhanachandra Singh, Germanpreet Singh, Fulganco Cardozo, Mohammed Rafi, Dhanpal Ganesh, Francis Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Karanjit Singh