The ISL - Indian Super League Foreign Players by Country/Amount table is out and brings up some thoughts and conclusions:
- 87 foreign players from 31 countries will take part in the new league, in eight new teams.
- That's an average of 10.875 foreigners in each team. It's almost a complete line-up.
- Spain and France lead with 25 of them. That’s 34.8% of all ISL Foreigners.
- Last World Cup’s finalists, Germany and Argentina, had only one representative each.
- Czech Republic, who participated in only one World Cup in the past 20 years, is in 3rd place with eight players.
- 62 Players are coming from European countries, 53.9% of the foreigners who take part in the league.
- 12 Latin American players are in the league, just 10.4% of the total number of foreigners.
- 6.9% are African Players (eight in total), including one from Botswana.
- Bangladesh and South Korea are the only Asian countries except India to send representatives, two and one respectively.
- Around 204 players will play in the first season, what makes the foreigners 42.6% of all players, and the Indian players are 58.4% ( a total of 117).
-The average age is 27.5, while the oldest player is 44 years old (English goalkeeper, David James). The youngest players are 18.
(All Data is from the official site of the ISL-Indian Super League)
Many see this league as a ‘Stepping Stone’ for Indian football and especially for the Indian Player. It will be interesting to see how they will evolve and improve in the situation. In Qatar or in the Emirates, the arrival of football veteran stars wasn't so beneficial for the young generation. Those countries failed to create a real football tradition. The ISL leaders hope that for a project of this volume, in a country with over than 1.2 billion people, the results for both short and long range, would be different.
On the salaries side it seems to work well. Mihir Vasvada, from The Indian Express, reported that Indian local players will earn more than the foreign players. Don’t panic, It’s not like Nirmal Chetri will earn more than Robert Pires and Alessandro Del Piero, but above the salaries alike of Bernard Mendy or Jofre.
There are a few voices (most of them from rival I-League figures) that already say that the ISL is all about marketing, TV rights and merchandise. The shining ceremonies have made people rethink their actual value for Indian football. Those who are calling against amounts of money spent on the project and it’s advertise, say that instead of creating a new ‘Elite’ league, the money could go to build and reconstruct the existing clubs and organizations.
To prove them wrong, the ISL Management must invest the major part of first year’s income in the academies and communities, otherwise this huge investment wasn't worth it at all. For their support, the ISL Grassroots projects began with a lot of enthusiasm and seem to be the right way to design the future of Indian Football. Organic, young, educational and most importantly, funded.
“For Indian football to improve, we need to widen the base of players, and for that we need good grassroots programs” said Scott O’Donnell, the Technical Director at AIFF Academies, who inspects every corner of the ISL Grassroots Football projects. Indian people will engage better with football after this first season of ISL, but the real challenge of the new teams, managers and investors is to maintain the success and to keep pushing and building the foundations in order to establish a real ‘Football Nation’.