Ahead of the start of the new Indian Super League football season, which begins Saturday with Chennaiyin taking on champions Atletico de Kolkata, we take a look at six players to watch for in the months ahead:
Lucio (Goa)
World Cup winner, Uefa Champions League winner and title winner in Germany and Italy, few players in the ISL boast the CV of Brazil’s 2010 World Cup captain. Though he is 35, he will be more than capable of organising FC Goa’s defence, and another shot at the title looks well within reach for him and countryman coach Zico.
Elano Blumer (Chennaiyin)
One of the inaugural season’s stand-out players, the former Manchester City player, 34, helped Chennaiyin to the play-offs with a haul of eight goals and the Brazilian will once again be central to his club’s hopes of success.
Helder Postiga (Atletico de Kolkata)
Despite a chequered career, at 33, former Portugal international Postiga should have enough in the tank to succeed at this level. Many fans remember him for a brief, unsuccessful, spell at Tottenham Hotspur, but the man who scored 27 goals in 71 matches for his country will be a welcome addition to last season’s champions.
Florent Malouda (Delhi Dynamos)
A season each at Trabzonspor and Metz have shown diminishing returns from the Frenchman, 35, but the successor to Alessandro Del Piero will be hoping for one last hurrah in Delhi, where his experience (six seasons at Chelsea, four at Lyon) should compensate for his fading legs.
John Arne Riise (Delhi Dynamos)
The 2005 Champions League winner with Liverpool has a ferocious shot and with defences in the league allowing more space than what he has been used to in his later years in the English Premier League and in Italy’s Serie A, Riise, 35, could have one more big season.
Harmanjot Khabra (Chennaiyin)
The versatile 26-year-old Indian midfielder has re-signed for a second loan spell at Chennaiyin FC from I-League outfit East Bengal, after being one of the driving forces behind the club’s first-place finish in the 2014 regular season.
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