Khel Now reveals the retained list of all Indian Super League clubs for the 2017-18 season. . .
With the fourth Indian Super League (ISL) season set to begin later this year, there are some obvious changes expected in the cash-rich league. With the addition of a Tata Group-owned side from Jamshedpur and JSW Group’s Bengaluru FC, the participants have increased to 10. With AFC slots looming large over the three-year-old League, ISL is rumoured to implement the five-foreigner per team rule with one slot for the Asian quota.
In one of the most shocking changes after three seasons of good, positive football, IMG-Reliance is close to implementing the players’ draft for the upcoming season. Some clubs are reportedly unhappy with the new system to be implemented. Before the draft takes place, every club is allowed to retain just two players. The third choices, too, have been included below. Under-21s and development players contracted by clubs can be retained autonomously. Herein, all the retained players have been provided by sources close to the developments.
Two-time champions Atletico de Kolkata have retained the services of the in-form goalkeeper and local favourite Debjit Majumder alongside versatile right-back Prabir Das.
Southern heavyweights Kerala Blasters have retained their ‘own’ and hugely followed player like CK Vineeth and talismanic defender Sandesh Jhingan. The centre-back is known to command a huge following in the Manjappada fan base. Fellow South Indian club Chennaiyin FC has retained the services of prolific striker Jeje Lalpekhlua and former National team No. 1 Karanjit Singh.
Geographically opposite side Delhi Dynamos have kept a clean slate, going without any retentions. The club have also stayed low in the transfer market so far, not signing any foreigners. It is baffling to see such tendency of a club which reached the semi-finals last season under Gianluca Zambrotta. The clean-slate strategy might be a major repercussion for the Delhi Dynamos side. The club had discussions with Anas and Souvik Chakraborty, but incoming manager Miguel Angel Portugal decided to go fresh.
Last season’s table toppers of the league Mumbai City FC have kept Amrinder Singh after a good season with them last year, quite logically. The Mumbaikars have also retained defensive midfielder, Sehnaj Singh. State rivals FC Pune City have only retained Vishal Kaith, who was under contract with Shillong Lajong FC.
Footballing hotbeds NorthEast United FC have retained controversial goalkeeper TP Rehenesh and lanky defensive midfielder Rowlin Borges. Both players are known to have a good following on the hills. FC Goa continues their romance with youth with Mandar Rao Dessai expected to be the only outfield to be retained. Alongside Colaco, goalkeeper Laxmikant Kattimani is also expected to stay put.
New entrants Bengaluru FC will put their pride in National hero Sunil Chhetri and consistent and winger Udanta Singh*, giving their home fans a continued flavour of quality football. Franchise owned by Tata group, another new entrant from Jamshedpur, is expected to get the first 2 picks in the draft and will opt for an Indian international striker and a goalkeeper.
ARE YOU HAPPY WITH THE PLAYERS YOUR FAVOURITE CLUB HAS RETAINED? COMMENT BELOW AND LET US KNOW!
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*Story updated as per latest developments 07th July 2017.
CK Vineeth and Sandesh Jhingan retained by Kerala. Great.
The ISL Draft process is a curse to the players and is nothing but modern day slavery.Its a myth that Indian players joining the draft process would earn unlimited INR.Reliance is not a new name in the Indian industry and Reliance , like most other Indian corporate companies doesn’t pay exorbitantly higher than the prevailing salary standard in the industry.
If East Bengal and Mohun Bagan can afford to pay Debjit 20 lacs may be ISL
would fix his rate at 24 lac. Why will any company pay Debjit 50 lacs ? No sane
business entity would do that.On the contrary Debjit could have bargained with
East Bengal and Mohun Bagan ,and hopefor a 25 lac from EB or MB.
With the draft process there is no bargain.
A player who might have earned 1 lac in the previous I-league but played tremendouslywell , ( like many from Aizwal FC) could have hoped for a great hike in salary oncehe started negotiating with multiple clubs of the I-league.What would happen to this guyin this case ? With whom shall he bargain ? He has to settle down with whatever ISLmanagement would decide as his fixed salary.So, in many cases I expect players to suffer financial loss by joining the draft process.
Some of the players like Mehtab are also employed in various Govenment jobs in
different cities.If Mehtab is picked by a Kerala based ISL club in the draft process,
he would then likely find it difficult to retain his job.Till last year ISL was a 3-4 monthaffair but now Mehtab would have to live the whole year away from Kolkata.
Since the ISL wants official AFC recognition so the ISL clubs would have to somehowexist for 12 months..
Recently each of the ISL clubs have published the names of 2 players whom they would like to retain from their last year squad and who would therefore not go through the Draft process. I believe this announcement assumes that the concerned player has an existing valid contract with the ISL club wherein he had played in the last ISL.This is probably not true in most of the cases. eg if media reports are correct then Debjit Majumder , the goalie , is now a free agent. If he wishes to play the ISL then he would be forced to play the ISL with whatever fixed salary is set up for him by IMGR. However, if Debjit Majumder is unhappy with the offer from IMGR then he can easily join East Bengal or Mohun Bagan if the offer from these 2 clubs is better than what would be offered by IMGR.
In this season the total budget of each ISL club is 18 crore. Each ISL club would sign 8 foreigners and 17 Indians.Since in the last season of ISL most of the foreigners were signed on lien for 4 months and in this season it would be nearly a 12 month contract , so I expect the ISL clubs to spend not less than 12 crore on hiring the 8 foreigners. That would leave around 6 crores to be spent on 17 Indian
players.So, I would not be surprised if some of these Indian players who were initially thinking of joining the ISL draft process and earn endless money , now start to think different.We must remember that the draft process is only advantageous for IMGR. It helps IMGR to pre-fix the salary of an Indian player and prevent the player from increasing his salary by negotiating with multiple interested clubs.Its an absolute financial loss and loss of personal freedom for the Indian player.
We should also think of the social disgrace of the Indian player who remains unsold in the draft process. In an open market process its not a disgrace or humiliation when a player finds it hard to find a club.If an Indian player is not selected in draft then its a national news that the concerned player has been rejected and not wanted for by 10 ISL clubs.He would then be at the mercy of the I-league clubs and his expected salary would receive a serious beating.
On 24-June Mohun Bagan announced that they have resolved their internal administrative problems and would now aggresively start building the team. I would not be surprised if Mohun Bagan and East Bengal now start poaching on the players of Bengaluru FC whose contract with BFC has expired.
I would also not be surprised if foreigners liks Sony Norde and Katsumi visualizes the real truth and decide to stay back with Mohun Bagan. I am sure that out of the 8 foreigners , 5 will be well paid by the ISL club and the remaining 3 would not get more than what would be offered by clubs like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.