Indian Super League: ISL Unveils 49 International Players for 'Central Player Draft Pool'

The franchise-based Indian Super League (ISL) have announced 49 international players for the 'central player draft pool', slated to take place in Mumbai on 21 August.

There will be 56 international players in the league, of which seven have already been signed by the franchises, while the remaining 49 will be available in the draft.

Delhi Dynamos FC (Mads Junker and Morten Skoubo), Northeast United FC (Isaac Chansa and Cornell Glen), FC Pune City (Emanuele Belardi and Bruno Cirillo) and Atletico de Kolkata (Borja Fernandez) have already roped in foreign players.

There will be seven rounds to draft overseas players. As Delhi Dynamos, Northeast United FC and FC Pune City have signed a couple of players, they will skip the first two rounds of the drafts, while Atletico de Kolkata will miss the first round.

Of 49 players, nine are from Spain, eight each from France and Czech Republic, five each from Portugal and Brazil, four from Colombia, two from South Korea and one each from Argentina, England, Greece, Senegal, Cameroon, Canada, Burkina Faso and Serbia.

The average age of players featuring in the 'central player draft pool' is 28 years, with an experience of 8187 competitive matches amongst them in various leagues across the globe. Andy Knee of IMG football said that they have acquired best possible football talent from the market.

"We are thrilled with the calibre of international players who will be participating in the Indian Super League this season," Knee said. "They have the quality, skill, determination and ambition to thrive in India and ensure a great playing product to entertain the fans.

"These players have committed to play in India given their excitement and belief in the future of Indian football Our expert player team has scoured the global football player market to attract the best possible players at the agreed salary levels on behalf of the Hero ISL clubs."

Each ISL franchise will have 22 players each, including seven internationals, one of them a marquee player, and 14 Indians, with the marquee signing to be announced later in the month. The costliest player in the international draft will get Rs 4.5 crore ($750,000).

International Players Pool:

Goalkeepers: Andre Matos Dias Pereira (Portugal); Apoula Edima Edel Bete (Cameroon); Gennaro Bracigliano (France); Jan Seda (Czech Republic); Marek Cech (Czech Republic).

Defenders: Andrés Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez (Colombia), Erwin Spitzner (Brazil), Henrique Dinis Oliveira Dias (Portugal), Ilias Pollalis (Greece), Massamba Lo Sambou (Senegal), Raphael Romey (France), Sylvain Monsoreau (France), Tomas Josl (Czech Republic), Gregory Arnolin (France), Bernard Mendy (France), Pavel Cmovs (Czech Republic), Youness Bengelloun (France), Johann Letzelter (France), Cedric Hengbart (France), Jairo Andres Suarez Carvajal (Colombia), Jose Miguel Gonzalez Rey (Spain).

Midfielders: Park Kwang-Il (South Korea), Bojan Djordjic (Sweden), Bruno Augusto Pelissari de Lima (Brazil), Cristian Hidalgo Gonzalez (Spain), Edgar Carvalho Figueira Marcelino (Portugal), Francisco Javier Fernandez Luque (Spain), Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos (Brazil), Victor Herrero Forcada (Spain), Jan Stohanzl (Czech Republic), Omar Andres Rodriguez Martinez (Colombia), Saidou Mady Panandetiguiri (Burkina Faso), Bruno Herrero Arias (Spain), Bruno Filipe Tavares Pinheiro (Portugal), Guilherme Felipe de Castro (Brazil), Pavel Elias (Czech Republic), Jakub Podany (Czech Republic), Jofre Mateu Gonzalez (Spain), Do Dong-Hyun (South Korea).

Forwards: Michael Chopra (England), Arnal Llibert Conde Carbo (Spain), Diego Fernando Nadaya (Argentina), Eduardo Silva Lerma (Spain), Iain Hume (Canada), Ivan Bolado Palacios (Spain), Luis Alfredo Yanes Padilla (Colombia), Miguel Bruno Pereira Herlein (Portugal), Miroslav Slepicka (Czech Republic), Pedro Adriano Veloso Gusmao (Brazil).