East Bengal to make a bid for Kim Song-Yong of RUFC...looking for him to take Sueoka apot as Asian player next year. Will probably replace Uga too and Moga....
You mean to say that they will retain a 40 year old Chidi Edeh. When will East Bengal and Mohun Bagan learn to take some chances and get new players from around the world rather than sticking to the same shit year on year.
East Bengal to make a bid for Kim Song-Yong of RUFC...looking for him to take Sueoka apot as Asian player next year. Will probably replace Uga too and Moga....
You mean to say that they will retain a 40 year old Chidi Edeh. When will East Bengal and Mohun Bagan learn to take some chances and get new players from around the world rather than sticking to the same shit year on year.
Nigerian player's play the Kolkata politics very well and are well versed in the "cut money" dealings with the Kolkata clubs/officials.
Professional player's from top leagues would take 1 look at the facilities at these "top clubs" and hop on the next plane back....
I, for one have been absolutely gung-ho abt the foreign player policy adopted by Kolkata clubs. However, we need to undertand few things here: The kolkata clubs led by EB, MSC (and MB after they did away with their "foreign policy" after 1991) were the first clubs who had actually gone to foreign locales to purchase footballers, when most of us were either not born or were toddlers! They started with the greats Majid Baskar and Jamshed Nassiri (Iran), followed by Emeka Ezuego ( who later went to represent Nigeria in 94 WC), Sammy Omollo(former Kenyan NT capt.), Igor (the Uzbek quality goal poacher , who had represented his country), the mercurial Barreto, the late Junior - to name a few who were quality players. This was at a time, when Goa clubs could not even dream about foreign imports to boost up their squad. It is the Goa clubs(more specifically Armando Colaco in Dempo), who started flexing their money powers when the got Junior from EB - that sort of started the trend.
What we need to understand is in Kolkata, the supporters have already "tasted" quality foreigners from the 80s and these foreigners have always used to live up to the expectation of the huge fan base and subsequently the Officials. Remember, we didnot use to to have sponsors like UB Group, FILA, Aircel in those days and it was restricted to some local sponsors(with limited money); hence the officials also used to bank on these imports hugely to mainly score goals to rope in sponsors. So this trend continued till early 2000 and these officials were under huge pressure from the fans - who wanted "instant success" and were absolutely ruthless on foreigners who took few matches to get used to team etc. This was also aggravated by the " We Know All" media , who literally used to hound foreigners if they were unable to score/perform for a couple of matches. Beto is a classic example - he was literally shoed out of Kolkata by the media/supporters - b'coz he failed to perform initially. To be fair to the club officials(net off cut money thing ofcourse!), since all these 3 clubs had a huge fan base (and money started coming into Indian football in early 2000, with home bred footballers looking for better lifestyle and lesser pressure and hence moving to Goa), they started playing safe and without any analysis went after players like the Odafas and Rantys for ready made solution! And to the "credit" of these shrewd players, who have been in India for a while now and understands the psycholgy of the Kolkata clubs, that they made bagful of monies with very little contribution and most importantly LESSER ACCOUNTABILITY- which is not permissible in Goa football.
The end result is that - none of these players last for more than 2/3 seasons in kolkata - and in their "effort" to make fool of the Kolkata clubs (which they do , but for a short period!), they are kicked out in such a way that they fail to redeem themselves anymore with any football clubs in India - Tolgay Ozbey being the latest example!
But the good thing is that things are changing in Kolkata football/the offcials' perspective - may be a tad slowly; however, better late then never..! Remember - the sponsors for the Big 2 Clubs of Kolkata is now a MNC which would just not shell out money without performance and let their brands' equity to dwindle....
@Ashlesh Players from African countries like Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana are playing at top clubs in Europe and they have proved themselves there. Its not that African safari is bad and we need players from England, USA. We had Rohan Ricketts, what happened?? We need good foreigners-whether they play for their National teams or not. There should be proper planning and calendar by the clubs. Instead of bringing foreigners every month as free agents, we need players who last whole season and spend time with clubs in their pre-season and gel with local players. We dont want those players who complain about heat, food, cows, roads in India!!!!
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Professional player's from top leagues would take 1 look at the facilities at these "top clubs" and hop on the next plane back....
We need good foreigners-whether they play for their National teams or not. There should be proper planning and calendar by the clubs. Instead of bringing foreigners every month as free agents, we need players who last whole season and spend time with clubs in their pre-season and gel with local players. We dont want those players who complain about heat, food, cows, roads in India!!!!