Carrying a base price tag of Rs 80 lakh, India skipper fails to spark bidding war before going to Ranbir Kapoor-owned franchise for Rs 1.2 crore
Think auction, talk big bucks. That's what they say.
However, Mumbai City FC don't quite adhere to that philosophy. So how exactly did they manage to pull off a coup in the form of Sunil Chhetri at the Indian Super League (ISL) player auction and draft on Friday? Well, they placed their bid and hoped no other team got too serious. In the end, they 'won'.
Carrying a base price tag of Rs 80 lakh, Chhetri was expected to be sold for Rs 2 crore or even more. But the India skipper's presence didn't lead to a bidding war. Eventually, he was sold to the Ranbir Kapoor-owned franchise for Rs 1.20 crore.
"It's a steal. I never imagined that the other clubs would not bid higher than the price he was sold for," Indranil Das Blah, CEO, Mumbai City FC, told dna.
He added that the country's all-time record goal-scorer wasn't even part of their plans. Their plan was to limit spending at the auction and concentrate on the draft. "We just bid for Chhetri thinking that the others will counter-bid till his price nears Rs 2 crore. We knew that we didn't want to spend more than 1.5 crore on a player because it would eat into our spending on an international player."
But they managed to do the impossible. "We still can't believe it," Das said. "When we bid at Rs 1.10 crore, we realised that other teams weren't too keen on signing him. That's when we knew we had our man. But to sign the country's most high-profile player will give our team a huge boost."
And the team certainly requires such a boost after a poor show last season. They finished seventh (second from bottom), scoring just 12 goals and conceding the most (21). So, by signing the striker duo of Nicolas Anelka and Chhetri, Mumbai have probably the best team on paper this season.
Chhetri had no qualms about not starting a bidding war. "Once you've played football for so long, you don't really care about the money. I'm happy that Mumbai have chosen me. I've never played for a team in this city, so it'll be really great. Moreover, I'm excited to partner Anelka. I think we have a well-balanced team as far as the domestic players are concerned."
Signing Chhetri is also a great deal from a marketing perspective. "Getting him (Chhetri) means that fans will flock the stadium to watch the home games. It will lead create more interest. And, ultimately, football will reach new levels in Mumbai. A simple move of signing Chhetri will have a huge impact," Blah added.
While Chhetri was supposed to be the star of the auction, two other players stole the limelight from him — Bengaluru FC's Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Rino Anto.
Lyngdoh became a millionaire when was purchased by FC Pune City for a whopping Rs 1.05 crore (base price of Rs 27 lakh) and Anto (Rs 17 lakh) was sold to defending champions Atletico de Kolkata for Rs 90 lakh.
Atletico de Kolkata were the first to bid for Lyndoh to touch the Rs 1-crore mark, but FC Pune City eventually picked up the 28-year-old, who was named I-League's best player this season.
A total of Rs 7.22 crore was spent on 10 players at the auction, with FC Goa and Kerala Blasters being the only teams not to buy any player.
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