Michael Chopra, Bernard Mendy, Gregory Arnolin star picks in Hero ISL international draft

With a plethora of International stars and talented youngsters who have excelled in their trade at the highest-level, both for their country and many an elite Premier League of the World, up for grabs, it was perhaps befitting that their entry into Indian Football was crafted at an event held closure to the monumental Gateway of India with the Arabian Sea in the background.

The day marked the completion of players draft, both Indian as well as international, for the inaugural season of Indian Super League which kicks-off on October 12, 2014. Total 56 international players, 49 from Thursday’s draft and seven being contracted by the clubs directly, were drafted among the eight ISL clubs. Earlier, in July 2014 the clubs had selected 112 Indian Players to complete the domestic players’ mandate.

“The 49 players who went into the draft today have had close to 9000 games in between them,” Andy Knee, Vice President, IMG, Football informed. “It only speaks about the experience and the competition they will bring into the Hero Indian Super League,” he maintained.

Kushal Das, General Secretary, All India Football Federation, felt “Indian Football needs a new dose of adrenalin.”

“We are extremely excited and hope the Indian Super League will provide the dose of much-needed visibility to Indian Football. The focus at present is on Youth Development and Grassroots which forms the base of the pyramid. But at the same time, the dose of commerce stays quintessential at the top of the pyramid. Both are interlinked to each other,” he stated. “We hope ISL will be the game changer for Indian Football.”

Anupam Dutta, CEO, Football Sports Development Pvt Ltd, a joint venture between IMG-Reliance and Star India said: “The international player draft today marks an important milestone in the Indian football. A League’s success depends on the Clubs and we are happy to have equally excited and committed partners in this journey. And against the backdrop of the International Player Draft, let’s not forget that we have a very good set of Indian Players in the League as well.”

Nitin Kukreja, President, Star India commented that “a milestone has been achieved.

“We will unleash a sporting revolution in India,” he concluded.

The draft picks from Hero Indian Super League’s International Player Draft stay as follows (Names appear as per the clubs’ picks during the round 1 to 7):-

FC Pune City: Bruno Cirillo, Emanuele Balardi, Ivan Boaldo Palacios, Saidou Mady Panandetigui, Omar Andres Rodriguez Martinez, Andres Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez, Park Kwang II.

Atletico de Kolkata: Borja Fernandez, Jofre Mateu Gonzalez, Jose Miguel Gonzelez Rey, Arnal Llibert Conde Carbo, Sylvain Monsoreau, Jakub Podany, Apoula Edima Edel Bete.

Kerala Blasters FC: Michael Chopra, Ian Hume, Victor Herrero Forcada, Erwin Spitzner, Pedro Adriano Veloso Gusmao, Cedric Hengbart, Raphael Romey.

Team Mumbai: Diego Fernando Nadaya, Jan Stohanzl, Francisco Javier Fernandez Luque, Pavel Cmovs, Johann Letzelter, Andre Matos Dias Pereira, Ilias Pollalis.

North East United FC: Issac Chansa, Cornell Glenn, Massamba Lo Sambou, Do Dong-Hyun, Guileherme Felipe de Castro, Tomas Josl, Luis Alfredo Yanes Padilla.

Team Chennai: Bernard Mendy, Cristian Hidalgo Gonzalez, Gennaro Bracigliano, Bojan Djordjic, Bruno Augusto Pelissari de Lima, Jairo Andres Suarez Carvajal, Eduardo Silva Lerma.

Team Goa: Miroslav Slepicka, Jan Seda, Bruno Filipe Tavares Pinheiro, Youness Bengelloun, Miguel Bruno Pereira Herlein, Gregory Arnolin, Edgar Carvalho Figueira Marcelino.

Delhi Dynamos FC: Mads Junker, Morten Skoubo, Bruno Herrero Arias, Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos, Marek Cech, Pavel Elias, Henrique Dinis Oliviera Dias.