Calcutta Football League 2018: New East Bengal signing Johnny Acosta hails Lionel Messi as a better player than Neymar 

Costa Rican defender Johnny Acosta finally addressed to the media as an East Bengal player on Thursday evening at their media room.

Apart from sharing his experience at the World's biggest stage, he firmly chose Messi as a better player than Neymar.

The new foreign recruit’s first press conference after receiving the new jersey was cut short due to the absence of a translator yesterday but the management roped in a translator this time.

The use of a Google translator, in reality, which was not a full proof solution added to the humiliation for the Kolkata based club.

On asking about his experience playing against Neymar in the World Cup, the Costa Rican said, “Not only Neymar, he enjoyed playing against the entire Brazilian football team and was also happy how Costa Rica played against Switzerland. We were very disappointed after playing for 90 minutes and conceding two late goals, but we fought against such a big team until the end, we are happy with that.”

On asking who was a tougher player to defend between Messi and Neymar, he was quick with the reply and said "Messi." The defender came face to face against Messi when Costa Rica met Argentina during the 2011 Copa America although they lost the match 0-3.

“I haven’t encountered such a problem, only Spanish speaking countries will have knowledge about the language. But he feels that language is not a barrier because football is the universal language, so it will be easy to communicate,” informed Costa when asked if the language barrier is going to affect communication with the players and coaches.

The Costa Rican defender who played in the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia was roped in by East Bengal last month for a whopping 1.36 crore rupees from Colombia’s Rionegro Aguilas.

The red and brigade recently joined hands with Quess Corp Pvt Limited, a multinational company which is currently their title sponsor.