KOLKATA: LaLiga heavyweights Atletico Madrid are likely to enter into an alliance with Jamshedpur FC, the Indian Super League (ISL) team owned by Tata Steel after it recently appointed Cesar Ferrando as the club’s new head coach, Hindustan Times reports.
The 58-year-old Spaniard coached Atletico in the past during the 2004-05 season.
Ferrando is expected to land in Jamshedpur on Saturday to help begin in the club’s pre-season training as the fifth season of the ISL will probably commence in the final week of September.
Atletico Madrid sees tremendous potential in the growth of Indian football, having entered into a partnership with the Kolkata franchise since the ISL’s inception in 2014.
In fact. Atletico’s international expansion kicked off with their involvement, along with other investors (including former cricketer Sourav Ganguly), in the setting-up of Atletico de Kolkata in 2014.
Atletico de Kolkata won the championship twice. Through Jose Molina, who was the head coach during the 2016 season and now the Spanish national team’s sporting director, Atletico was the key in recruiting overseas players and coaches in the team.
However, Kolkata’s majority owner Sanjiv Goenka announced the termination of the club’s partnership with Atletico in 2017, renaming the club ‘ATK’ since the fourth season of the ISL.
During the same year, Jamshedpur FC made its ISL debut and Sunil Bhaskaran, the vice president of Corporate Services had told HT then that the club would be keen on merging with a top European club.
The newspaper quotes informed sources while reporting that Atletico has conducted extensive meetings with Jamshedpur’s representatives in India and Spain. If the deal goes ahead, it could be finalized a month before ISL 5 begins as Atletico supports pre-season training opportunities in Madrid, an initiative it had also taken with ATK.
If the deal does go through, Atletico would hold stakes in three international clubs. In July 2016, Atletico acquired a 34.6% stake in the French club Lens, which was followed up in March 2017, with the acquisition of a 50% stake in Mexico’s Liga MX club San Luis.
