Mumbai: Mumbai City FC’s marquee player and former Uruguay star Diego Forlan, who replaced French star Nicolas Anelka at the third season of the Indian Super League is all set for upcoming ISL. Forlan’s main focus, this time is upon his troops’ health and fitness condition.
“You play many games in a short period (in ISL) and also travel a lot. That’s not easy. Everyone needs to be fit and available for every game. That’s important,” said the 37-year-old, holder of 2010 World Cup ‘Player of the Tournament’.
“This is a nice schedule, a different type of tournament. Hopefully, many players can play many games, but it’s not easy. You get more tired. The way they are doing it, it’s new for me. You not only need to have a good squad but also need to have the whole squad injury free.”
His concern is justifiable, not just from his point of view but also from team’s head coach Alexandre Borges prospect.Two of Borges players (Funai and Udanta Singh) are injured and two other key members – ace India striker Sunil Chhetri and goalkeeper Amrinder Singh – will not be available for the initial part of the ISL.
Inspite of all such troubles. He believes that the pre-season stint in Dubai had been beneficial and will help them in many ways.
“We did very well in Dubai. We knew about the players. We propped to them different styles of play and we had the opportunity to see each one. Now we have a clear picture of what we have and can expect from them,” said the Costa Rican.
The forward player Diego Forlan seemed to be very optimistic with his second visit to India and team’s composition.
“This is my second time in India. I played in Kolkata 2010 (in a friendly fixture between Uruguay and Argentina). We have a mix of good Indian and foreign players. He gave statement to PTI.
He also, openly talked about the foreseen challenges, analyzed by him, where he admitted that the club’s inability to not qualify for the play offs served as the challenge in front of them. However, Diego Forlan can be viewed as the person who knows to overcome challenges. Well, who can forget that spectacular goal against Germany in the 2010 World Cup which was voted as the best in that competition! Forlan, with five strikes, was also that edition’s joint top scorer.
The Indian Super League (ISL)-Men’s professional football league is all set to commence from first of October and before it’s start Diego Forlan made his Fans of ‘Mumbai City FC’ glad with his remark upon choosing India over other offers. “I had (other) offers, but preferred coming here. I had been watching some games before, when I was living in Japan and then in Uruguay. There are many good players and many people inside the stadium.”
Promoting Football in country like India where Cricket is worshipped like anything over any other sport is a Hercules task which Forlan can sense, and then standing by India’s offer has definitely raised his fan’s number and raised respect.