Published By: Rohit Chatterjee

Top Marquee Players in ISL

The Indian Super League became bigger with the induction of legendary footballers from around the world

When the Indian Premier League (IPL) came into existence, the Indian cricket enthusiasts were overjoyed since they finally had a tournament where they could chant the name of their city. Indeed, the Ranji trophy existed before that, but it missed a certain flair which IPL fulfilled.

Indian Super League (ISL) amped the enthusiasm to the next level. India is known as the land of cricket, but there’s no dearth of football fans. Hence, the inception of ISL enabled the fans to have a look at some legendary footballers from close quarters. Also, the league immediately became a massive hit. We can agree it could not surpass the popularity of cricket, but it surely sparked a new fire. The ISL saw the addition of renowned World Cup-winning footballers such as Roberto Carlos from Brazil and Alessandro Del Piero from Italy.

In this article, we list some of the best foreign marquee players that have played in the Indian Super League so far.

Alessandro Del Piero

The Italian signing graced the Indian pitch with his charismatic playing style for the Delhi Dynamos. The player won the World Cup in 2006 and was a phenomenal asset for Juventus, where he won 18 titles. For Juventus, the player appeared in over 700 games and scored close to 300 goals.

Elano Blumer

The midfielder from Brazil was part of the Chennaiyin FC, who was also a part of the Brazil squad in the 2010 World Cup. Blumer scored the first goal for Brazil in the opening match against South Korea. However, he got injured and had to spend the rest of the tournament on the sideline. During his career on the foreign soil, he had stints with clubs like Santos and Shakhtar Donetsk. Not to mention, he won the Copa America tournament in 2007.

David Benjamin James

The Englishman played as a goalkeeper and appeared 53 times for the England national football team. James played for the Kerala Blasters FC as a goalkeeper and also acted as the manager. During his football stint in Europe, he spent time with several football clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Aston Villa and West Ham to name a few. With club Watford, James won the Player of the Season award in 91/92.

Marco Materazzi 

The World Cup 2006 winner joined Chennaiyin FC as a player-manager and led the side to lift the trophy in the second edition of ISL. During his prime time, the defender had a great spell with Inter Milan and Perugia. Apart from winning the World Cup, he also won the Champions League and four Coppa Italia titles along with Supercopa Italiana.