Sunil Chhetri among 10 players to be put up for ISL auction

Mumbai: Indian star footballer Sunil Chhetri will be among 10 top players to be put up for bidding among eight franchises in the first ever Hero Indian Super League (ISL) Player Auction to be held here on July 10.

All the 10 players in the auction list had missed the inaugural season of the ISL last year owning to their individual contracts with respective I-League clubs. However, they showed keen interest to be a part of the league for the second season which will begin on October 3.

The four-time AIFF ‘Player of the Year’ Chhetri, who ply trade at Bengaluru FC, commands the highest base price in the ISL Player Auction at Rs 80 lakh, followed by goalkeeper Karanjeet Singh at Rs 60 lakh.

Another Bengaluru FC player Robin Singh, Arata Izumi and Anas Edathodika have been pegged at Rs 40 lakh base price, while Thoi Singh is just a notch below at Rs 39 lakh.

Eugeneson Lyngdoh will be at Rs 27.50 lakh base price and the Royal Wahingdoh loaned duo of Jackichand Singh and Seityasen Singh will be at Rs 20 lakh each. Rino Anto commands the lowest base price in the auction list at Rs 17.50 lakh.

Six of the 10 players in the list – Chhetri, Robin, Thoi, Izumi, Edathodika and Karanjeet – have signed up with Football Sports Development Limited, the promoters of ISL, as free agents.

Jackichand and Seityasen have been loaned from I- League club Royal Wahingdoh FC while Rino Anto and Eugeneson Lyngdoh are loaned from Bengaluru FC.

Meanwhile, Football Sports Development Limited also announced an extensive list of 113 Indian players for ISL 2015 Draft. The eight ISL franchisees as of date have 64 Indian players on their roster, either retained from last year or signed from the open market.

The comprehensive Draft list will help ISL franchisees to fill up a total of 40 positions of the Indian player quota.

The Draft will be held on the same day here as the Player Auction on July 10.