Mahindra United’s successful campaign this season was followed by the failure to retain their Brazilian striker Jose Ramirez Barreto.
MUMBAI: Mahindra United’s successful campaign this season was followed by the failure to retain their Brazilian striker Jose Ramirez Barreto. But the champions are trying to make up for it by looking to Brazilian shores in their bid for a replacement.
“Yusif Yakubu has been retained but we are looking at countries like Brazil for the two foreign players we require for the next season,” confirmed Alan Durante, president of Mahindra.
Manager Henry Menezes concurred. “We’re basically looking for a striker and an attacking midfielder, who can feed the ball to Yakubu,” he said. Besides Brazil, the city giants are also looking at other countries like Ghana and South Africa.
“It would have been great to have players from Europe but they play in different weather conditions and find it difficult to get used to temperatures in excess of 30 degrees. So we’re looking for players from countries where the climate is similar to that in India,” explained Durante. Though no players have been identified as of now, the club has its agents scouting for prospects and will sign them in the next month or so.
The rest of the team composition will be mostly similar to that of last season, with Mahindra managing to retain all but four players from the current roster. It essentially implies that competent players like K Ajayan, Mahesh Gawli, Peter Siddique, Sandip Nandy, Steven Dias, Surkumar Singh, S Venkatesh and Sushant Mathew will all continue in Mahindra colours next season.
The players who opted to leave the city-based club for greener pastures are Deepak Mondal, Subhash Chakraborty, Surajit Bose and Barreto. It’s sheer coincidence that all four of them have signed for the same club, Kolkata’s Mohun Bagan.
“Barreto was happy with us but there are plans of an academy coming up there. He has got some percentage holding there (at Bagan), so that was the lure for him to go to Kolkata,” explained Durante. “The other three left for very personal reasons. In any case you cannot hold back the whole team.”
The team has bolstered its ranks by taking advantage of the transfer window and signing formidable players, of the likes of NP Pradeep and Mohammed Rafi (from State Bank of Travancore), Nicholas Rodrigues (from Sporting Clube de Goa), Bhola Dey (from Tollygunge Agragami), Chiman Apparao (from Air India) and the Delhi-based Rahimatula twins, Adnan and Humair. Talented players like Keegan Pereira, Lihaz Koya and Revelino Fernandes, from the Mahindra under-19 team, have also made their way to the senior squad on the basis of their impressive performances.
With almost the entire team decided well in advance, Mahindra have also decided on their plan of action for the season and that includes a good outing at the Asian Football Confederations (AFC) Cup besides retaining their National Football League (NFL) title.
“This year we did very well in the AFC Cup, drawing three away games and winning two of the three home games. We’ll make a dent in the competition next year,” said Durante.
The team is also considering a tie-up with Italian apparel-maker El-Sporto for long-term development. “We’ve had three meetings with them regarding a tour of the Caribbean in August. In return we have to put their logo on our team jersey,” said Durante. A trip to China is also on the cards.
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