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Kerala Blasters have signed former Barcelona youth player Jossue Currais Prieto for the second season of the Indian Super League. Prieto was at the fabled La Masia academy for two years between 2009 and 2011. He was last seen playing for Polish top division side Gornik Leczna.
Prieto started his youth career at CF Esplais before getting his big break in the famous Catalan side’s youth academy that boasts of producing talents such as Xavi, Andreas Iniesta, Pedro and Lionel Messi. After two years at the La Masia, Prieto moved to Barcelona’s cross-town rivals Espanyol, where he would train for another year.
The youngster started his professional career with Catalonian side, UE Olot, before getting a call from Finnish Veikkausliiga side SJK Seinajoki, where he would go on to make 31 league appearances scoring 9 goals, which is not a bad return for a midfielder.
After leaving SJK Seinajoki, Prieto had a short spell with Italian club Terracina before moving to Polish top division side Gornik Leczna. After traveling throughout Europe, he has now joined up with the runner-ups of the inaugural Indian Super League, Kerala Blasters for the second edition of the tournament.
Kerala lost Iain Hume to Atletico de Kolkata in the open market
Kerala have lost out on last season’s top scorer Iain Hume, who will appear in the red and white jersey of Champions Atletico de Kolkata in this season’s ISL. They have, however, announced the signing of midfielder Joao Coimbra, former Newcastle defender Peter Ramage former Leighton Orient striker Chris Dagnall and Brazillian defender Bruno Perone.
The Peter Taylor led team have also acquired the signatures of Sanchez Watt(24), Antonio German(23) and now Prieto(23), which makes their squad a pretty youthful one. Along with the foreign recruits, they have Ishfaq Ahmed, Mehtab Hossain and Sandesh Jhingan who have been retained from last season’s squad that made it all the way to the finals of the competition.
In the ISL draft, the South Indian team picked up Cavin Lobo, CK Vineeth and Peter Carvalho as their initial picks. The team are yet to announce their marquee player for this season but it is widely regarded that the 2010 Spanish World Cup winning defender Carlos Marchena would be the one to fill the boots of David James, who played the part of marquee players and manager last season.
Kerala announced their signing through their Official Twitter account stating the player’s previous clubs.
