When Ronaldinho, Owen almost said 'yes'

to India
PANAJI: The world knows how Ronaldinho paused for a moment to look at what Indian football
offered before deciding to pack his bags for Mexico. But, the Brazilian superstar was not alone in
looking at the Indian Super League (ISL) with more than just passing interest.

A few ambitious franchisees sounded out Michael Owen too but were put off by his expensive price-
tag. The former England striker needed a minimum of Rs 14 crore to break his existing television
contract and come out of retirement.

FC Pune City had no hesitation in meeting the contractual demands of Massimo Ambrosini, but the
former Italy and AC Milan captain was left in two minds after Chennaiyin FC, represented by
Prashant Agarwal of Kshatriya Sports, came calling. Ambrosini did not need too much convincing
from Kshatriya, but could not get his family to shift to the Tamil Nadu capital for three months. Even
former Spanish striker Raul Gonzalez, for that matter, had no hesitation in coming to India but,
according to one agent, he would have been made to pay a "huge penalty" if he had unilaterally
terminated his contract with Al Sadd in Qatar. None of the franchisees wanted to pay a transfer fee
for a three-month assignment.

The Chennai franchise came into existence after Bangalore pulled out, but not before they had
alerted several leading players from around the world. Former Netherlands midfielder Edgar Davids
was offered a play er-cum-manager role at the Bangalore franchise, although the $400,000 (approx
Rs 2.40 crore) was not enough to tempt the midfielder, famous for his dreadlocked hair and
protective goggles.

Deco, the Brazilian-born Portuguese midfielder, was another big name linked with at least three ISL
franchisees. FC Goa even appeared keen but with four agents claiming to represent the former
European midfielder of the year, the talks never came to fruition! Before Pune FC finalized a deal
with France World Cup winner David Trezeguet as their marquee player, they briefly flirted with
Emile Heskey, former England striker and marquee player of Australian club Newcastle Jets.

Others who were contacted and came close to signing on the dotted line for a player or managerial
role in the ISL include World Cup winner Fabio Cannavaro (Italy), Ruud Gullit (Netherlands), Steve
Clarke (Scotland), Ciro Ferrara (Italy), Eidur Gudjohnsen (Iceland), Adrian Mutu (Romania), Milan
Baros (Czech Republic) and Juninho (Brazil). The Indian Super League (ISL) is set to kick off in style at
the Salt Lake Stadium on Sunday.

A grand opening ceremony has been planned prior to the opening tie, the highlight of which will be a
performance by actor Priyanka Chopra and teenaged heartthrob Varun Dhawan. Most of the star
owners and co-owners of different franchisees -Abhishek Bachchan (Chennaiyin FC), Ranbir Kapoor
(Mumbai City FC), Salman Khan (FC Pune City), John Abraham (NorthEast United FC), Sachin
Tendulkar (Kerala Blasters) and Sourav Ganguly (Atletico de Kolkata) -will be in attendance.

Even the presence of MS Dhoni and his deputy Virat Kohli, co-owners of Chennaiyin FC and FC Goa,
respectively, can't be ruled out though they are in the midst of an ODI series against the West Indies.

The programme - to be attended by Union minister of youth affairs and sports Sarbananda Sonowal,
ISL's founder chairperson Nita Ambani and Reliance India Limited chairman Mukesh Ambani among
others - will portray the cultural diversity of the country through the medium of music. Eight
maestros, representing the eight teams, will take centrestage along with 160 musicians.
Representing Kolkata will be Bickram Ghosh, while Sivamani will represent Chennai and Aslam
Dafrani Delhi, while Bondo and Taufiq Qureshi will represent Goa and Mumbai, respectively.