Aryn Williams: ISL is getting bigger, standard is getting higher

The 26-year-old spoke about his time in Indian football and the latest trend of A-League players joining the Indian top tier clubs.

Well before a plethora of players from the A-League decided to dip into the waters of the Indian Super League (ISL), Aryn Williams was among the first to make the journey to Indian football. The Australian-born midfielder with Indian heritage instead started out in the I-League with then-newcomers NEROCA FC.

A versatile, reliable player who played a huge part over NEROCA’s successful debut campaign in the I-League – where they finished 2nd Williams definitely earned his name for succeeding in the Indian football scene. While he had to leave NEROCA in 2019 due to their crisis, he is enthusiastic as ever speaking about the Indian football scene and Australian stars opting to play in the ISL.

Recently, he spoke to Australian publication The World Game and explained, “Aussies are leaving the A-League as there is talk of the salary cap being reduced. Ultimately players are moving there as they are getting more money and as the league is taking place in a bubble in Goa and that could ease the mind of players who were concerned about coronavirus."

“The ISL is getting bigger and the standard is getting higher. If you do well there, then you can move to other Asian leagues.”

He also spoke about his journey in India, including the difficulties which came with it. “There was a culture shock, to be honest after living in England and Australia."

“There are some nice places but it is so heavily populated and poverty can be quite high in the cities and I was taken aback by some of it at first. It wasn’t hard to live there but it was harder than Australia.”

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Before leaving India, Aryn Williams had spoken to Khel Now and explained his ambitions to get an Indian passport and play for the national team. But the various loopholes in the system denied him the opportunity to do so despite persistent attempts by him and his agents, resulting in the Australian going to play elsewhere.

“That was my ultimate goal, to get an Indian passport and go to the national team but when I arrived, it just proved to be an impossible task. I went through many agencies and companies but nobody really knew what to do. It was making me stressed so in the end I left it.”

While it was quite unfortunate that a talented player like Williams didn’t get a bigger chance to make his stamp at the top of Indian football, he left the country as one of the more successful A-League exports.

A number of A-League stars like Scott Neville, Danny Fox, Aaron Holloway (SC East Bengal), Adam Le Fondre (Mumbai City FC), Brad Inman (ATK Mohun Bagan), Jordan Murray (Kerala Blasters) and Steven Taylor (Odisha FC) have arrived to play in the ISL this season. After the impressive work of title-winners Roy Krishna and David Williams, these stars will also hope to make a big impact this season.