Kochi: Indian Super League based side Kerala Blasters announced the signing of a Serbian defender Nemanja Lakic-Pesic for the upcoming ISL season. Nemanja becomes the third overseas signing of the Blasters after the arrivals of Canadian Iain Hume and Ghanian Courage Pekuson.
The club took to social media to announce the arrival of the defender. Their Twitter handle read, “Nemanja woah-oh, Nemanja woah-oh. He comes from Serbia. Welcome Kerala’s own Serbinator!”
The 25-year old defender has played in the Serbian Superliga, the top-tier football league in the country and has also been a part of the Austrian football league.
Nemanja became the second signing in two days for the Yellow army. Midfielder Courage Pekuson was signed just about 24 hours before him.
After the completion of the domestic draft, all the ISL teams have been very busy in the transfer market finding the best overseas option to complete their 25 men squad.
With the signing of the Serbian, ISL clubs this season have now roped in a total number of 32 overseas players . Bengaluru FC and Mumbai City FC have been the most busiest, having signed six overseas players each for the forthcoming ISL season.
It had been a frustrating time for the Blasters’ fans as the team was virtually silent in the market after the purchase of Iain Hume.
The tall defender Lakic-Pesic has joined the Kerala outfit after completing his one year stint with the Austrian Erste Liga (second division) club Kapfenberger SV.
With Indian defender Sandesh Jhingan in the side, coach Rene Meulensteen will be a happy man after the signing of the 1.94m tall defender. He will be partnering Jhingan in the Kerala defence and will definitely have big shoes to fill, which was left void by the former Kerala captain Cedric Hengbart.
With a mix bag of both talented Indian and overseas players, the men in yellow will be one of the teams to vouch for, this ISL.
Earlier, defending Champions ATK completed their second signing of the season in the form of Portugese forward Zequinha. He will be the second Portuguese striker after Helder Postiga to play for the ISL team.
Meanwhile, Delhi Dynamos continued their relationship with South America, signing another South American player. This time it is Venezuelan defender Gabriel Alejandro Cichero. The 33 year old defender became the fourth South American signing for the Dynamos.