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The Indian Super League’s international player draft took place in Mumbai on Thursday and Atletico de Kolkata made the headlines by picking up former Liverpool defender and UEFA Champions League winner Josemi.
Josemi is one of four Spaniards in the Kolkata franchise, whose co-owners are Atletico Madrid, with former Barcelona midfielder Jofre Mateu Gonzalez also getting picked.
Kerala Blasters FC also caught the eye as they roped in former Newcastle United and Sunderland striker Michael Chopra with the franchise’s player-manager David James making the key decisions during the draft.
Team Chennai, who replaced Bangalore as the league’s eighth franchise, picked up one of the two costliest players in former French international Bernard Mendy besides picking up former Manchester United midfielder Bojan Djordjic.
Team Goa picked up the other most expensive player in the draft as they signed French defender Gregory Arnolin.
49 players were up for grabs in the international draft with former French international Oliver Dacourt analysing the selections.
Seven other players were already signed earlier with three of the franchises – FC Pune City (Emanuele Belardi and Bruno Cirillo), Delhi Dynamos (Mads Junker and Morten Skoubo) and NorthEast United FC (Isaac Chansa and Cornell Glen) – using the quota of recruiting two outside the draft and Atletico Kolkata also roped in one player (Borja Fernandez).
The ISL is expected to kick off from October 12 with the final likely to be on December 20.
Draft picks
FC Pune City: Emanuele Belardi, Bruno Cirillo, Ivan Bolado Palacios, Saidou Mady Panandetiguiri, Omar Andres Rodriguez Martinez, Andres Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez, Park Kwang-Il
Delhi Dynamos: Mads Junker, Morten Skoubo, Bruno Herrero Arias, Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos, Marek Cech, Pavel Elias, Henrique Dinis Oliveira Dias
Team Goa: Miroslav Slepicka, Jan Seda, Bruno Filipe Tavares Pinheiro, Youness Bengelloun, Miguel Bruno Pereira Herlein, Gregory Arnolin, Edgar Carvalho Figueira Marcelino
Team Chennai: Bernard Mendy, Cristian Hidalgo Gonzalez, Gennaro Bracigliano, Bojan Djordjic, Bruno Augusto Pelissari de Lima, Jairo Andrez Suarez Carvajal, Eduardo Silva Lerma
NorthEast United FC: Isaac Chansa, Cornell Glen, Massamba Lô Sambou, Do Dong-Hyun, Guilherme Felipe De Castro, Tomas Josl, Luis Alfredo Yanes Padilla
Team Mumbai: Diego Fernando Nadaya, Jan Stohanzl, Francisco Javier Fernandez Luque, Pavel Cmovs, Johann Letzelter, Andre Matos Dias Pereira, Ilias Pollalis
Kerala Blasters FC: Michael Chopra, Ian Hume, Víctor Herrero Forcada, Erwin Spitzner, Pedro Adriano Veloso Gusmao, Cedric Hengbart, Raphael Romey
Atletico de Kolkata: Borja Fernandez, Jofre Mateu Gonzalez, Josemi, Arnal Llibert Conde Carbo, Sylvain Monsoreau, Jakub Podany, Apoula Edma Edel Bete
