I am open to I-League if the offer is good: Hume

The striker kept mum on his contact with East Bengal officials.

Atletico de Kolkata’s Canadian striker Iain Hume is not concerned about his goal drought in this edition of the Indian Super League (ISL). The Golden Ball winner of the first edition and the second highest scorer of the second edition of the cash-rich football league has so far netted once in the third edition that too from a spot-kick. Hume’s lack of form is reflected in Atletico’s performances as well as the Kolkata franchise has so far scored 5 goals from 4 matches. With injury to Helder Postiga the onus is on Hume to score goals for last year’s semi-finalists. On his goal drought the Canadian striker said, “I am not worried at all. It happens to every player in the world. Last year I got my first opening after 6 matches and this year I already scored one and had an assist in the opening match itself. You also need to remember we did not create a lot of chances.” On being asked how the tactics of new coach Jose Molina varied from those of former manager Antonio Lopez Habas he said, “Everybody has different personalities. Habas and Molina are good coaches. I wouldn’t say their style is very dissimilar. As persons everybody is different from the other. Habas had success with the team. But we are not missing him because we got a good coach in Molina. We are not getting beaten so is he unsuccessful? We are third in the table. We are not winning but we are not losing either.” Hume also lamented the poor turnout at the Rabindra Sarobar Stadium for this season’s matches, saying that it is ‘disappointing’ when compared to the colossal Salt Lake Stadium which used to draw around 60,000 spectators. “The Salt Lake fan base was ridiculous. The atmosphere is not the same in the new stadium. It’s disappointing not to have the same number of fans,” Hume who is in his second season for ATK told reporters. “The second game (against FC Goa) was a Sunday and it was disappointing that fans didn’t turn up. When we move here, we thought we could grasp the opportunity to fill a smaller stadium. It’s sad that we cannot fill even a 12,000 odd capacity facility,” Hume said. For the last couple of weeks, there has been a lot of speculation on Iain Hume debuting in the I-League this season in the Red and Gold jersey as his former coach Trevor Morgan is the Head Coach at Eat Bengal. On this issue, he said, “I had offers in the I-League last season but I was not interested. Truly speaking, this season I am open to I-league if I have a good offer. I am a professional footballer and I will ply my trade wherever I get good opportunities. My agent is looking after that. But I won’t say with which club I am having talks. That I will reveal after the ISL. I am now a ATK player.” Meanwhile, young winger Abhinas Ruidas who has impressed coach Molina with his energetic runs on the flanks looked very excited about his first experience in the ISL. He said, “This is a learning curve for me. I am learning a lot from Hume, Lara and others like how much time I should hold the ball, how to distribute and pass and all these things. I am feeling overwhelmed that the coach has shown trust in me and I will try to give more than 100% for ATK and this experience will help me play well in the near future specially in the I-league.” Photo © ISL Media