Indian Football transfers: North-East United FC retains Pawan Kumar for 2019/20 ISL

North-East United FC has retained custodian Pawan Kumar for the 2019/20 Indian Super League season. He was an integral part of the squad last season en route to their first ever top four spots in the competition having played 16 matches for them. The footballer from Gurudaspur made a total of 35 saves with a 67.3 save percentage. Pawan was also awarded the North-East United FC goalkeeper of the season. This will be his second consecutive season with the ‘Highlanders.’

Pawan started his senior club career with JCT in 2010 and subsequently played for other clubs like Air India, Salgaoncar, Bengaluru FC, Mumbai FC. He was a part of Chennaiyin FC’s ISL winning squad but only played a single match that season. He shifted his loyalties to North-East United FC just for the 2018/19 ISL season. During his JCT days, Pawan was one of the five players who went to the United Kingdom to train at the Wolverhampton Wanderers Academy as a part of the partnership it had with the Indian club.

North-East United FC enjoyed their best ever ISL season, but they got eliminated in the semi-finals. A large credit must be given to their coach Eelco Schattorie who has done a commendable job with the squad. But the Dutch tactician has been roped in by Kerala Blasters FC for the 2019/20 ISL. Not only that, their most prolific goalscorer Bartholomew Ogbeche has also moved to Kerala Blasters FC, these two transfers are a big loss for the team, but securing the services of Pawan Kumar will give them a sigh of relief for the John Abraham owned the team.

There are still quite a few months left before the 2019/20 ISL kicks-off, so the ‘Highlanders’ will get ample to re-group their squad and recruit other players. More importantly, they yet to announce a head coach for the upcoming season.