Kerala Blasters have secured the signing of their second Indian player in Sandesh Jhingan. The Indian national team star’s future was hanging in the balance as recently as yesterday when Kerala Blasters re-signed CK Vineeth, but the defender’s retention has now been officially announced.
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Jhingan played a starring role in Kerala Blasters’ run to the Indian Super League final last year. He joined Bengaluru FC on loan this January for the I-League season and helped the Blue to the Federation Cup win. The big defender will apparently earn Rs 3.8 crores on a three-year contract.
With his signing, the Sachin Tendulkar-owned franchise have retained two of the most popular Indian players from last season’s squad. Both Jhingan and Vineeth enjoy a big following, hence their retentions are a cause for celebration for the Kochi-based club’s faithful.
It was widely expected at the start of this week that Kerala Blasters would sign Vineeth and Mehtab Hossain as their retained players, but things have since taken wild twists which saw Mehtab making an about turn and heading for the player draft while talks with Rino Anto, another crowd favourite in Kerala, also fell through.
The last day for clubs to submit their retained players’ list is believed to be today, as clubs seem to be in a hurry so as to not face the prospect of closing last minute deals. Kerala Blasters can now head into the domestic player draft safe in the knowledge that they have retained two of their best Indian players for next season. Along with the Indian national team duo, the Men in Yellow have also retained Prasanth Karuthadathkuni, a U-21 player.
Besides being a star for his club sides, Jhingan is also a regular in Stephen Constantine’s Indian national team. The burly centre-back, who can also play as a full-back, has been part of the Indian team that has won eight straight international matches and climbed to 96th in the FIFA rankings.
With his arrival, Kerala Blasters can now shift their attention to signing Anas Edathodika, a local lad, should he not be retained by Delhi Dynamos. Anas and Jhingan are the first choice centre-back pair for the national team, hence getting both to play in the yellow and blue of Kerala Blasters will amount to a coup for the two-time finalists.
Jhingan’s confirmed signing means Kerala Blasters have only one-half of their defensive puzzle to solve. Meanwhile, Antonio German and Josu Currais are also set to come back to Kerala's fold, while the situation with Steve Coppell is getting worse by the day. Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson is reportedly in talks with the Kochi-based club.
