I-League 2018: 'Chencho Gyeltshen still a Minerva Punjab player, East Bengal can only sign him if they match transfer fee,' says owner Ranjit Bajaj

Despite recent reports suggesting that I-League's star Chencho Gyeltshen has been snapped up by Kolkata giants East Bengal, Minerva Punjab owner Ranjit Bajaj said that the Bhutanese winger is still a player at the Chandigarh-based club.

Earlier this week, a number of media reports had suggested that Bajaj wanted to offer Chencho as a gift to East Bengal after Minerva's complaints about East Bengal trying to poach some of their players seemingly soured the relationship between the two clubs and their fans.

However, the Minerva Punjab owner later clarified to Sportskeeda that this was not the case, calling the whole affair "nonsense".

"All this is nonsense. What I had said was, whoever gives me the transfer fee, Chencho is a gift to them," Bajaj said. "Am I mad that I'll give Chencho as a gift to anyone?"

He further went on to state that he would be more than willing to sell Chencho to either of the Kolkata clubs if they are willing to pay the transfer fee for the man, who is often called the 'Bhutanese Cristiano Ronaldo'.

"I've got nothing against East Bengal, nor against Mohun Bagan. All I'm saying is, if East Bengal want him, they can pay the transfer fee, and he will be their player. They have to talk to the player and strike a deal with him," said Bajaj.

Bajaj went on to reveal that most of the players at Minerva Punjab have contracts till 2019, and he is willing to let them go only if the rival clubs match the transfer fee that the club demands from them.

"I'm never going to stop any player who wants to move to any club. But according to the contract, he is still my player. More than half of my players have contracts till 2019," he continued. "So why will I leave a player who has a contract with me till 2019, when I have to now go and look for a player who would cost much more to replace him. Why will I take a loss like that?"

"If I sell the player, I could get a few lakhs in transfer fee, so I could get a proper replacement," further said.

Last month, East Bengal had announced the signing of six players, four of them from Minerva Punjab -- Kassim Aidara, Rakshit Dagar, Sukhdev Singh, and Deepak Devrani. However, Minerva Punjab later went on to rebuke these claims. Minerva Punjab further went on the report the issue to AIFF.