ISL auction: Meet the footballers who went under the hammer

Mumbai: The auction for the second season of Indian Super League (ISL) was a shot in the arm for rising Indian footballers. Sunil Chhetri made the most out of the bidding, along with Eugeneson Lyngdoh and Rino Anto. The league reached Rs 7.22 crore-mark in the mart.

Chhetri – with a base price of Rs 80 lakh – was sold to Mumbai City FC for Rs 1.20 crore. FC Pune City, co-owned by Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan, stole the talented Lyngdoh for Rs 1.05 crore from his base price of Rs 27.5 lakh.

Atletico De Kolkata, the defending champions, bagged Anto, who made his national debut recently against Oman in the FIFA World Cup qualifier. He was sold for Rs 90 lakh from his base price of Rs 17.50 lakh.

One of the interesting purchases of the day was made by John Abraham’s NorthEast United FC. The franchise went all out for Seityasen Singh for Rs 56 lakh.

“We were just waiting for his name to come up. We had a planned strategy for the auction and we felt Seityesen could add to the midfield. We had identified the areas we wanted to emphasise on. We wanted someone who could play in both wings,” said John.

“The decision came after discussions with our assistant coach Santosh Kashyap and our foreign coach Cesar Farias. We would have gone to any length to get Seityasen,” he added.

Karanjit Singh, the only available goalkeeper, went to Chennaiyin FC for his base price itself (Rs 60 lakh).

The franchise, co-owned by Abhishek Bachchan and Mahendra Singh Dhoni, also bought the services of midfielder Thoi Singh for Rs 86 lakh.

Auction picks at a glance:

(Photo: Screengrab from ISL Official website)