Bozidar and band up for ISL

“The cast is set,” read a post’s caption on Chennaiyin FC’s social media handles on Thursday as the club locked its contingent for the ongoing Indian Super League 2021-22 season in Goa.

The co-producers – Abhishek Bachchan, Vita Dani and MS Dhoni – and the management unsurprisingly opted for a rejig in the off-season after their previous film – CFC in ISL 7 – failed to live up to the hype. Following just a solitary project with Csaba Laszlo in 2020-21, which fell well short of the usual standard, the production house decided to part ways with the maker.

At the helm of affairs now is Bozidar Bandovic, who is set for his directorial debut in the ISL. The Montenegrin had run the show a few years ago in Thailand, leading his then club Buriram United FC to back-to-back league trophies in 2016-17 and 2017-18.

The 52-year-old Bandovic will be assisted in the unit by the trio of Bojan Ofenbeher, Sabir Pasha and Milorad Nikolic. The backroom staff have assembled a talented crew for their upcoming venture, despite not having the financial powers which some clubs in the League boast. What has appealed to the incoming artists is the past success of Chennaiyin, which delivered box-office hits in the form of titles in ISL 2015 and 2017-18. CFC has injected fresh blood into the overseas department, with five of the six foreigners in the squad new to the scene.

Brazilian playmaker Rafael Crivellaro is the only overseas recruit to have been retained from the previous set, underlining his importance in the middle of the park. While the well-built centre-back Slavko Damjanovic (Serbia) is the sole recognised foreign defender in the team, Ariel Borysiuk of Poland will add the steel to the midfield.Polish striker Lukasz Gikiewicz, Kyrgyz Republic forward Mirlan Murzaev and the versatile Vladimir Koman of Hungary have been drafted in to be the points of difference in the final third of the field. In what is a welcome move for the ISL, midfield enforcer Anirudh Thapa – the present and future of the national team – has been anointed the club captain.

The Indian acquisitions – including Narayan Das, Salam Ranjan Singh, Deepak Devrani, Ninthoi Meetei and Jobby Justin among others – provide the much-needed depth that Chennaiyin badly lacked last season. CFC has also added local flavour, with five Tamil Nadu players – Edwin Sydney Vanspaul, Balaji Ganesan, Suhail Pasha, Mohamed Liyaakath and Rahul K – registered in the squad as opposed to three in the previous edition.

The likes of Vishal Kaith, Reagan Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte and Rahim Ali, who featured on a regular basis in a disappointing Season 7, would be hungry to take the club back to the upper echelons of the ISL. Chennaiyin has the makings of a successful team, but can Bozidar and his band do the talking on the grass?