Indian Super League: Final Retention List Revealed, Delhi Dynamos To Begin Draft On A Fresh Note

The Indian Super League 2017 has put 199 players up for grabs out of which, 134 will be selected to join the 10 franchises and their retained players. The Indian Super League’s draft is scheduled on Sunday and the two new teams, Jamshedpur FC and Bengaluru FC will be vying for the finest properties (players) along with eight other franchises.

According to the rules of Indian Super League, franchises will be able to sign additional three from the unselected category after the draft process, only one of whom can be a foreign player.

Draft Procedure

Hero Indian Super League regulations allow Clubs to sign a minimum of 15 and maximum of 18 Indian footballers in the squad, which should include at least two U21 development players. They are also allowed to retain a maximum of two senior players from the ISL 2016 squad, in addition to retaining up to three U21 players from last year to fill up the development player quota.

Eight of the nine franchises, except Jamshedpur FC, have made the most of these retention regulations for the 2017 Indian Super league season by signing 22 domestic players for creating the core squad, while Delhi Dynamos, surprisingly, have opted to begin the draft on a fresh note for the upcoming season without any retentions.

Jamshedpur FC, the TATA-owned club, will get the first pick in both 1st as well as 2nd rounds of the Indian Super League’s Player Draft, while Delhi Dynamos FC, which is starting afresh, will be the second club to exercise their pick in the opening round.

Hrithik Roshan-owned FC Pune City, who have only retained 1 senior player, will join Jamshedpur FC and Delhi Dynamos in the second round.

While rest of the clubs, except Chennaiyin FC, will join the Indian Super League Player Draft from the 3rd round, the Abhishek Bachchan and MS Dhoni-owned club will be the only one to join the Player Draft in 4th Round. Chennaiyin FC, the ISL 2015 champions, will enter in the fourth round because they have already retained promising youngster Jerry Lalrinzuala (a capped Indian player falling under U-21 category), as well as two other senior players.

Indian Super League 2017 Final Retention List

Atletico de Kolkata: Debjit Majumdar (Sr), Prabir Das (Sr)

Bengaluru FC: Sunil Chhetri (Sr ), Udanta Singh (Sr), Nishu Kumar (U21), Malsawmzuala (U21)

Chennaiyin FC: Jeje Lalpekhlua (Sr), Karanjit Singh (Sr), Jerry Lalrinzuala (capped), Anirudh Thapa (U21)

Delhi Dynamos FC: None

FC Goa: Laxmikant Kattimani (Sr), Mandar Rao Dessai (Sr)

FC Pune City: Vishal Kaith (Sr): Ashique Kuruniyan (U21)

Kerala Blasters FC: CK Vineeth (Sr), Sandesh Jhingan (Sr), Prasanth Karuthadathkuni (U21)

Mumbai City FC: Amrinder Singh (Sr), Sehnaj Singh (Sr), Rakesh Oram (U21)

North East United FC: Rowllin Borges (Sr), TP Rehenesh (Sr)

Jamshedpur FC: None

Indian Super League 2017-18 Player Draft will also witness the use Instant Trading Card, first successfully introduced in ISL 2015 Player Draft. This allows franchise a second chance to trade an already picked footballer from the third round onwards.

If any club, within 15 seconds of another Club disclosing its Draft pick, presses the buzzer to activate the “Instant Trade” process, then representatives of both the clubs will head to the Instant Trading Table in order to propose, negotiate and close the deal, however, within a stipulated time.