We're going to witness the birth of a footballing nation. Yes, the land of Cricket is going to play spectator to a football generation (why, sometimes even a transition from cricket to football) , with the kickoff of the Reliance IMG- ISL (Indian Super League) that would be underway from the 21st of October, 2014. The Indian youth, idolizing clubs like Manchester United, Real Madrid, Chelsea ,FC Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund and many other such clubs for many years ,till now, were unfortunate enough not to be a part of a footballing spectacle in their own homeland. But now, we have reasons to be happy.
The inaugural edition of the ISL would be played by 8
franchises, namely Chennai (Chennai Titans), Kolkata (Atletico de Kolkata) , Delhi
(Delhi Dynamos) , Pune (FC Pune City) , Guwahati (North East United), Kerala
(Kerala Blasters), Mumbai (Mumbai City FC) and Goa (FC Goa) in the IPL style
format from October through December, without any kind of relegations and
promotions as in the European style.
A lot of talent has been tapped, with nearly 84 Indian
players like Subrata Paul and Jeje Lalpekhlua being given a well deserved
chance. There are 49 foreign players, of which there are many players who have
dominated the worldwide stage. There ain't a Messi or a Rooney or a Robben. There
is Italian goal machine Alessandro Del Piero for Delhi, the powerful English
goalkeeper David James for Kerala, Frenchman David Trezeguet for Pune, Spanish
ace Joan Capdevila for Guwahati, Liverpool and Barcelona wizard Luis Garcia for
Kolkata, Miguel De Rey again for Kolkata.
Are you
thinking ,”who is this dude?”
Well, he’s known to us by a more popular name. Ronaldinho Gaucho!
The former Barcelona and Milan forward blasted himself into
the footballing scene when he scored all the 23 goals in a 23-0 victory against
a local team, at the age of 13. Since then, he has not looked back. He has
played an illustrious career, having scored 33 goals for the most selective
team, the Selecao (the Brazil national team) in 97 matches, and 70 and 20 goals
respectively for bigwigs Barcelona and AC Milan. He has savoured nearly every
honor possible: the FIFA World Cup in 2002,the UEFA Champions League in 2005,
the La Liga twice in 2004 and 2005, the Serie A in 2010,why, even the
prestigious BALLON D’OR in 2005!
The skill laden goal
machine from Brazil has agreed to sign for the Abhishek-Bachchan and Prashant
Agarwal owned Inter-Milan partnered franchise Chennai Titans at the cost of 36
crore INR for 2 years.He would play and train along the likes of former PSG
players Bernard Mendy, Swede Bojan Djordjic, Colombian International Jairo
Suarez at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, the home stadium of the Chennai franchise.
This comes as a huge moment for Indian Soccer. We are going
to witness the “most loved” footballer play in our league. And we Chennaiites
are more than excited. We can’t wait to see a 40,000-packed Jawaharlal Nehru
scream “RONALDINHO” in unison! We can’t wait to see him perform all those
skills, those funny antics and of course, the goals! We simply can't wait to
call him “NAMMA OORU PAYYAN!” or “MACHAN” and even see him speak a word or two
in Tamil or why, lift the ISL in his debut season!
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