Mumbai City FC may not bid for India's best footballer

If football lovers in the city thought that they could see star India football captain Sunil Chhetri don the Mumbai City FC jersey for the upcoming Indian Super League season, they might be a little disappointed.

Chhetri, India's highest goalscorer, is expected to cost the most at Friday's ISL auction and Indranil Das Blah, CEO of the Ranbir Kapoor-owned side said that his team won't bid for players if their price goes up drastically.

"We know that other teams will go for the top players at the auction, but we won't go that path. If a player's price rises too much, we'll stop our bidding. We won't be bidding for names, but rather the positions that we need," Blah said.

The auction rules say: "A club may buy up to four domestic players at the auction. Any domestic player bought at the auction is counted in addition to the 13 domestic players that each club must accumulate from (i) its retained domestic players and (ii) the domestic players that it buys in the draft."

That means that though the teams can buy four players, they will have to think twice because it will eat into their international player quota.

The ISL allows a team to have up to 17 domestic players. However, the maximum a club can have is 26 players in all. That means that the number of domestic players bought by a club at the auction will proportionately reduce the number of international players that it can purchase.

And, with ISL allowing six international players to be present on field at a time, the franchises will surely be mindful of buying too many players from the auction.

Mumbai have signed just six domestic players so far and can sign seven more. But Blah said his team wasn't going to focus on the auction because the draft has plenty of talented domestic players.

"If you look at the names in the draft, all of them are top players. So we have made a list of the players we want from the draft, rather than from the auction."

Players up for auction

PLAYER POSITION BASE PRICE (Rs, lakh)
Sunil Chhetri Forward 80
Karanjit Singh Goalkeeper 60
Anas Edathodika Defender 40
Arata Izumi Midfielder 40
Robin Singh Forward 40
Thoi Singh Midfielder 39
Eugeneson Lyngdoh Midfielder 27.50
Jackichand Singh Forward 20
Seityasen Singh Midfielder 20

Domestic draft

Atletico Kolkata
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 2.79
Balance: 2.71
No. of players signed: 9

Chennaiyin FC
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 3.09
Balance: 2.41
No. of players signed: 8

Delhi Dynamos
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 2.49
Balance: 3.01
No. of players signed: 7

FC Goa
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 3.32
Balance: 2.18
No. of players signed: 11

Kerala Blasters FC
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 3.51
Balance: 1.99
No. of players signed: 9

Mumbai City FC
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 1.83
Balance: 3.67
No. of players signed: 6

NorthEast United FC
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 2.47
Balance: 3.03
No. of players signed: 7

FC Pune City
Total purse: 5.50
Money spent: 2.63
Balance: 2.87
No. of players signed: 7

*Figures in INR crore

Roberto Carlos named marquee player
Roberto Carlos, who was recently unveiled as the manager of Delhi Dynamos, will also play for the club in a player-manager role. This means that he will also be the marquee player for the capital club. It comes as a big news as the 42-year-old will get back on the pitch since retiring in 2012 at Anzhi Makhachkala. Initially, it was believed that the Brazilian legend was only going to be managing the team, but the latest developments indicate that apart from managing the team, he will also be playing for the team. Carlos is expected to bring loads of experience to Delhi as the club looks to improve and go further in the competition. They finished fifth in the table last time out and did not qualify for the knockout stages.