Indian Player Salary see sharp 103 % surge in 3 years

by Avinash Palai July 24, 2017

Mumbai, 23 July 2017: Hero Indian Super League 2017 witnessed a sharp spike of over 103% in domestic players’ salary as compared to the inaugural year of ISL in 2014, as the ten clubs together spend INR 48.85 crore today to secure signatures of 156 players at the end of day long ISL Indian Player Draft here in Mumbai. The ISL 2014 Player Draft, the first ever player draft held ever in India, had recorded INR 24 Crore spend by eight ISL clubs.

Anas Edathodika and Eugeneson Lyngdoh, each pegged at INR 1.10 crore were the flavour of the day, predictably being picked immediately at the opening of the draft. New entrant Jamshedpur FC didn’t waste a minute to announce Anas as their first ever player on their roster while ATK secured Eugeneson at the first given opportunity.

The fourth season of Hero Indian Super League – which will kick off on 17^th November 2017, will feature 25 of the 29 Indian National Players including stars like Sunil Chhettri, Jeje, Eugeneson, Jackichand, Sandesh, Pritam, Subrata Paul and Jayesh donning colours of their respective teams over an extended 5 months League.

Coming into the Indian Player Draft, ten ISL Clubs together had spent INR 11.51 Crore in retaining a total of 22 players ahead of the 7^th July 2017 deadline. Today, the Clubs looked at completing the Indian Player quota of minimum 15 and maximum 18 players, including two U21 development players.

By the end of day, 134 best and most promising players got drafted across ISL clubs with a combined salary of INR 37.33 Crore. Including the spend on retained players, total spend by clubs was recorded at INR 48.85 Crore.

The Indian Super League two-time finalist Kerala Blasters FC gave a big thumbs up to the emerging talents coming up through the ranks at college competitions, as the Sachin Tendulkar co-owned team picked up Ajith Sivan – a Nirmala College, Kochi student who was scouted through the inaugural Reliance Foundation Youth Sports campus National football championship.

At the end of the day, Bengaluru FC emerged as the most invested club on Indian players with a spend of INR 6.01 Crore on 17 players, followed by Kerala Blasters FC spending  INR 5.93 crore of their purse over 16 Indian players.

With Indian Players coming on-board, the ISL clubs will now look at forming the combinations with foreign players signings. Each club is allowed to sign minimum 7 and max 8 international players for the season.