The ISL has also announced that going forward from this season they will implement Asian Football Confederation’s 3+1 foreign player rule.
Antonio Habas' ATK Mohun Bagan side finished runners-up to last season while the Kerala Blasters will look to improve on their 10th placed finish from last season under new coach Ivan Vukomanovic. The league will kick off with ATK Mohun Bagan taking on Kerala Blasters at the Fatorda Stadium. Similar to last season, this season again, the entire ISL will be held inside a bio-bubble behind closed doors. A total of 11 teams viz Mumbai City FC, ATK Mohun Bagan, Northeast United FC, FC Goa, Hyderabad FC, SC East Bengal, Kerala Blasters FC, Chennaiyin FC, Jamshedpur FC, Odisha FC and Bengaluru FC will take part in the competition. We will have better scorers than Sunil Chhetris in future, that is the hope and we have to be patient.The Indian Super League is back and will get underway later in night on Friday, November 19, 7:30 AM IST in Goa. We have to evolve and be better than before. "The country needs better players than Sunil Chhetris. He is our weapon."Īmong others, Chhetri picked Apuia, Rahim Ali, Anirudh Thapa and Liston Colaco as future goal-scorers. He is young and so he is unable to adapt (from one position to other) and so at times he is off. "The problem is he plays at the right side for ATK Mohun Bagan in ISL but as No. He is a beast, a machine, in every training test we have, he will be in the top three. We are the dominant side in this region and I think we are peaking at the right time and we can go all the way in the final," Chhetri said.Ĭhhetri picked Manvir Singh, who scored India's first goal against the Maldives, as his possible successor in goal scoring. "Beating a tough team like Maldives in the Maldives and that also in a hostile environment (home fan support) was the way we needed to play. We were not playing against the Qatars and Japans and UAEs of the world," he said. We missed a lot of chances against Nepal also. Not scoring against Sri Lanka was unacceptable. "It was a topsy-turvy beginning for us in the tournament. He has played in the 20 editions of the continent's showpiece event.He admitted that his side did not play up to the expectations in the first two drawn matches of the SAFF Championships against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka but improved gradually. Despite that, he scored so many goals and that speaks of his extremely great achievement."Ĭhhetri said his short term goal is to help India qualify for the 2023 Asian Cup in China. Football was different in those times, the game was brutal at times then. "Very few footages of the great man (Pele) but from whatever I can see, he was a dynamic and powerful footballer. I am happy to keep playing and scoring for my country.
I want to do everything now."Īsked about him overtaking the great Pele, Chhetri said, "Everybody who knows football knows that there is no comparison whatsoever (with Pele). Missing, I will miss goals, scoring I will score goals but all this we will talk once I am done because I don't want to regret that I could have done this and that. "Gaali khata hun, ya log tarif karte hey.Everything I try to forget, I go there and try to do my best.