Former Paris Saint Germain players Bernard Mendy and Gregory Arnolin were picked up for Rs 48.5 lakh
Bernard Mendy and Gregory Arnolin
Mumbai: French professional defenders Bernard Mendy and Gregory Arnolin were the hot picks in the international players central draft pool held here on Thursday. Mendy went to new entrants Chennai while Arnolin was picked by the Goa franchise. Both players who have represented Paris Saint-Germain, fetched the top amount of $80,000 (Rs48.5 lakh) for the inaugural season well below the top amount of Rs 80 lakh fetched by Indian players Subrata Paul, Gaourmangi Singh and Syed Rahim Nabi last month in the domestic players draft.
Besides the signing amount, the trio will also get additional 33 per cent loan fee for playing in an I-League club. Former Newcastle player Michael Chopra and Serbia’s Bojan Djordjic fetched around $60,000 each for the season. Indian born English footballer Chopra was the first pick of the day by Kerala Blasters. Former Manchester United Youth star Djordjic was signed by Chennai.
A total of 49 foreign players were drafted on Thursday for the eight-franchise league, which is slated to run from October 12 to December 20. Seven players were directly recruited by four franchises Pune City (2), Delhi Dynamos (2), NorthEast United (2) and Atletico de Kolkata (1).
The international draft had a total budget of Rs18 crore but a little over Rs16 crore was spent on Thursday. Goa was the highest spender with Rs 2.46 crore on seven foreign players followed by Chennai, with Rs 2.34 crore on seven players. Delhi Dynamos and NorthEast United, who had already signed two international players each, spent the least amount Rs1.62 crore followed by Pune (Rs1.75 crore), which bought five players. Atletico de Kolkata (Rs2.17 crore, six players), Team Mumbai (Rs2.10 crore and Kerala Blasters (Rs1.98 crore) spent heavily, buying seven players each.
( Source : dc )
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