Capdevila signs for Guwahati ISL team
SHILLONG: In something of a coup for Indian football, Indian Super League franchise North East United FC announced the signing of Joan Capdevila, a Spanish footballer who was part of the World Cup-winning team of 2010 and the Euro 2008 champion team, on Wednesday.
Capdevila – a defender – will be the marquee player for the Guwahati-based team.
He marshalled the left-back position for the once-dominant Spanish national team and was a prominent member of the side that won the World Cup and European Championship.
The 36-year-old Capdevila has played over 400 games and scored 36 goals in La Liga for big teams such as Espanyol, Atletico Madrid, Deportivo La Coruna and Villareal, according to a press release that announced his signing.
The defender graduated from the U-21 and U-23 Spanish teams and appeared 60 times for his country at the top level.
In his mid-thirties Capdevilla played for Espanyol last season and described the move to NE United as a “new challenge”.
“At this stage, after winning everything, to be on a new challenge was needed,” he was quoted as saying in the press release.
“After speaking to (co-owner) John Abraham about the way he is passionately looking to promote football in India and the project of North East United FC, it excited me to take up this challenge.
“India is a huge country and it should be a privilege for me to be a small part in popularising this global game here and working with the young talented footballers of North East India.”
The inaugural season of the ISL is scheduled to begin in September and the eight franchises are slowly making key announcements regarding their team names, composition and appointments.
North East United announced their name last month in Guwahati but did not give much away as to which players they hoped to take on other than saying that four foreign players will come from Shillong Lajong FC, whose managing director, Larsing Ming Sawyan, is also a co-owner of NE Utd.
Sawyan added at the time that nine youth players from the region will be included in the squad and further members of the squad will be chosen from an ISL pool and through scouts.
In the Wednesday press release, Sawyan said that the signing of Capdevila is the “best thing yet” that has happened to NEUFC.
“A player of Capdevila’s calibre will definitely add impetus to our ambitions in the upcoming ISL,” he added.
“Football fans in the North East are already familiar with him and I believe the excitement of the ISL in the North East has already reached a high level.”
Guwahati was one of eight cities – the others being New Delhi, Mumbai, Kochi, Bangalore, Pune, Goa and Kolkata – that were chosen through a bidding process to be part of the ISL.
The Kolkata franchise is part-owned by one of Capdevila’s former teams, Atletico Madrid.
Abraham also expressed his happiness with Capdevila’s signing, saying, “We are confident that his achievements in the game and his presence in our team will motivate our younger Indian players and his inputs would help us build a strong team for our future.”