Indian Super League 2014: Club by club guide
The question as to whether the Indian Premier League has been good for the game of cricket or not has drawn different answers, but everyone has been in agreement that it has left an indelible mark on how the game is played and thought about. FIFA have long since targetted India’s capital and resources, and all parties stand to gain if India can pick up from their current 158th spot in the international rankings.The most glaring solution to the situation was a revamped football league and on 12th October, the first ball of the Indian Super League is about to be kicked. To think of the numerous such ventures which have failed to materialize in the past, it is quite clear that this is a big event by any standards.Some predict that the ISL will be an EPL of the east in the future, and as for Sepp Blatter, his words on the matter suggest that there is nothing that he would like better. He has backed the ISL as a step in the right direction, and it is well known that he considers India’s market a ‘sleeping giant’.Time will tell if the ISL will be able to take the world by storm. Here is an essential guide to the eight teams competing for the maiden ISL title to be crowned champions of India.
#1 Atletico de Kolkata
Home Ground: Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata (Capacity – 68,000)
Coach: Antonio Lopez Habas (Assistant: Jose Ramirez Barreto)
Star co-owners: Atletico Madrid, Sourav Ganguly, Harshvardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh
Club Affiliation: Atletico Madrid
Twitter: @atletidekolkata Facebook: Atletico de Kolkata
The Squad: Goalkeepers – Apoula Edel, Shubhashish Roy Chowdhury, Basilio Agudo; Defenders – Sylvain Monsoreau, Arnab Mondal, Biswajit Saha, Denzil Franco, Kingshuk Debnath, Nallappan Mohanraj, Josemi; Midfielders – Luis Garcia, Mamunul Islam, Ofentse Nato, Jakub Podany, Calvin Lobo, Climax Lawrence, Lester Fernandez, Rakesh Masih, Sanju Pradhan, Borja Fernandez, Jofre Mateu; Strikers – Fikru Teferra, Baljit Sahni, Mohammed Rafi, Mohammed Rafique, Arnal Libbert.
The team from Kolkata is the most expensive franchise in the first edition of the ISL, and was also the first side to be officially announced on 7 May, after a successful bid by the owners, Kolkata Games and Sports. The franchise is partly owned by Atletico Madrid, hence the colour of the club’s kits and the distinct Spanish flavour in the squad.
Former Bolivia and Valencia manager Antonio Lopez Habas is at the helm of on-pitch affairs, to ensure that the massive inflow of money into this franchise translates into footballing success. Liverpool’s Uefa Champions League hero of yore Luis Garcia is the team’s marquee player, who overturned his decision to retire made earlier this year on being invited to the ISL. Real Madrid academy trainee Borja Fernandez and Barcelona academy graduate Jofre Mateu are the other notable foreign names in the Kolkata roster.
Veteran India midfielder Climax Lawrence, and East Bengal’s Arnab Mondal and Cavin Lobo are the locally based players on whom all eyes will be.