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What’s The Story?
It has been an exciting ISL 2017 so far. The most enthralling part is that the defending champions ATK are tattering at the bottom with just two points from three matches. On the other hand, the debutant Bengaluru FC are leading the charts with six points in their kitty.
Like every season, there is no shortage of goals as we have seen 43 goals already in this season. The interesting fact is that the Indian players have scored nine goals and are jointly ranked second along with Brazilian players on this list. Spanish players have scored 10 goals so far, and are leading the list.
The context
ISL has changed the dimension of Indian football. The world has started taking a note of Indian football and Indian players are improving, which matters the most. It is not only the strikers, but players from different position are also making serious impacts on the game.
The heart of the matter
Balwant Singh of Mumbai City FC has scored two goals so far and tops the charts among Indian footballers. Meanwhile, Md Rafi of Chennaiyin FC, Lallianzuala Chhangte of Delhi Dynamos, Lenny Rodrigues and Captain Sunil Chhetri of Bengaluru FC and Mandar Rao Desai, Rohit Kumar, Bipin Singh of FC Goa, FC Pune City and ATK, respectively, have all scored one goal each.
The way, Indian players are getting highlighted this season will surely take the tally to a good number.
What’s next
There are not many marquee players in this year’s ISL, apart from Robbie Keane of ATK and Dimitar Berbatov of Kerala Blasters. The franchises have invested more in Indian players, which is immensely benefitting for the country. India’s national team’s performances have gone up significantly in last one season and hopefully, with the help of ISL, the Blue Tigers can go higher.
Author’s take
There is nothing more exciting than Indians scoring goals. Earlier, all the Indian clubs used to hire foreign players to do the bulk of the goalscoring, but things have changed as Indian strikers have started answering their critics.
