Exclusive: Atletico Madrid to announce partnership with Jamshedpur FC

This is Los Rojiblancos' second foray into Indian football after they were previously associated with ATK.

LaLiga outfit Atletico Madrid are coming to the Indian Super League again! It wasn't long ago, when the Spanish side co-owned West Bengal outfit ATK in partnership with Sourav Ganguly,  Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka and Utsav Parekh. According to Khel Now sources, the Los Colchoneros will be announcing a tie-up with Jamshedpur FC, in the sphere of youth development.

Our sources have also stated that the official announcement of the partnership will take place on 21st November 2018, at the Taj Mansingh Hotel (Delhi), around 5 PM.

The West Bengal outfit's ISL title was paraded at Atletico's stadium in Spain

Atletico's partnership with ATK relied primarily on the club's academy, with the Spanish giants providing coaches, academy help and also pre-season tours for the Indian club. Los Rojiblancos' relationship with ATK had come to a sour end, with Sanjiv Goenka buying their stake. The Madrid-based club were also blamed for indirectly halting ATK's youth development. Disagreements regarding youth development amongst other alleged reasons led to the partnership's break-up.

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It is being said that the club will have a direct partnership with Jamshedpur's Tata Football Academy, providing coaching expertise and also helping and promoting their youth development. 

A source close to Atletico Madrid said, "We have been thinking because we don't want to leave India at all. We are more than happy to be here. We feel the warmth of this country and the fans. In these years we have been able to share a lot of the experience."

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"We are really excited because we were here with our former partners ATK, but we had to part ways due to various reasons. We were with them for three seasons. First season we were champions, second season we were in semi-finals and the third season we were champions again," said a person who had worked closely with ATK as part of the erstwhile alliance.

After falling out with the Kolkata club, the representative claimed that they were on the lookout for better options and seem to have found the best one.