Hopefully, we can put up a show on the big days– Sourav Ganguly

The former Indian cricket team skipper is expecting his team to challenge for the title this time.

After a successful pre-season in Spain, ATK led by their new head coach Steve Coppell are determined to bring back the Hero Indian Super League trophy. Two-time Hero Indian Super League (HISL) champions will host Kerala Blasters in their first game of the season on Saturday, September 29, 2018, with an eye on the history to become the first team to win the ISL thrice.

Ganguly delighted with the team’s pre-season preparations said, “I think preparations are very important and we’ve played some strong sides, including the Premier League team Fulham. So there have been some pretty strong sides that we’ve trained with. Hopefully, we can put up a show on the big days, which starts from the 29th of September.”

The Bengal Tiger seems relatively confident about the team’s performance in the upcoming tournament and has urged the football frenzy in Kolkata to support the team in huge numbers.

Speaking on the team potential and the challenges, Sourav Ganguly said, “Firstly, we need to try and get together as a team first, which is important. The changes are pretty normal and with the various systems and the models of the Hero ISL, sometimes players get left out and new players come in. So we’ll try and build a team. I think we’ve won it twice in the last four years and we were a very strong unit, but it’s a challenge for us. When you keep winning, the challenge becomes a lot more, so hopefully, we’ll turn it around this year.”

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In a run-up to the season opener, Star Sports – the official broadcaster of the HISL, has launched a new TVC highlighting football as the essence of West Bengal’s heartbeat and features the ‘Prince of Calcutta’ Sourav Ganguly. The TVC sees ‘Dada’ Sourav Ganguly leading the throngs of football fans in a united march to the stadium while magnifying the fact that Football daake aar Bangali ashena? Eta konodin hote pare na!

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The TVC is a reminder for football fans across India that Kolkata is the birthplace of Indian football which has even seen legends like Pele, Messi and Maradona gracing the land and acknowledging the unmatched emotion for the sport that flows through the veins of people from the city.

Hero Indian Super League Season 5 will be broadcast on the Star Sports network, Hotstar and Jio TV. Season 5 will have a six-language feed across 7 channels. ATK fans can catch all the HISL action in their favourite language on Jalsha Movies.