A lowdown of all the eight clubs competing in the Indian Super League which begins today in Kolkata
Atletico de Kolkata
Marquee player: Spaniard Luis Garcia, who has come out of retirement to play for Atletico de Kolkata. The winger has played for clubs like Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Liverpool, with whom he won the Champions League in 2005. Has also scored four goals for Spain.
Squad: Subhashish Roy Chowdhry, Apoula Edel, Basillo Agudo (goalkeepers); Arnab Mondal, Biswajit Saha, Denzil Franco, Kingshuk Debnath, Nallappan Mohanraj, Josemi, Sylvian Monsoreau (defenders); Luis Garcia, Borja, Jofre Mateu, Climax Lawrence, Lester Fernandez, Sanju Pradhan, Rakesh Masih, Cavin Lobo, Ofentse Nato, Mamunul Islam, Jakub Podany (midfielders); Fikru Teferra, Baljit Sahni, Mohammed Rafi, Mohammed Rafique, Arnal Libert (forwards).
Coach: Antonio Lopez Habas, who has managed in Spain, Thailand and South Africa.
Owners: Ex-India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly, Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka, Utsav Parekh.
Foreign club link: Reigning Spanish champions Atletico Madrid have a stake in the club.
Chennaiyin FC
Marquee player: Former Manchester City and Galatasaray midfielder Elano. At 33, he is the youngest marquee player in the ISL.
Squad: Abhijit Mondal, Gennaro Bracigliano, Shilton Paul (goalkeepers); Abhishek Das, Barnard Mendy, Dhanachandra Singh, Gouramangi Singh, Jairo Andres Suarez Carvajal, Khelemba Singh Meetei, Marco Materazzi, Mikael Silvestre (defenders); Anthony Barbosa, Bojan Djordjic, Bruno Augusto Pelissari de Lima, Cristian Hidalgo Gonzalez, Dane Pereira, Denson Devadas, Harmanjot Khabra, Jaison Vales, NP Pradeep, Pierre Jonas Folke Tillman, Sukhwinder Singh (midfielders); Balwant Singh, Eduardo Silva Lerma, Jayesh Rane, Jeje Lalpekhlua, John Stiven Mendoza Valencia (forwards).
Coach: Marco Materazzi, who will be a player-cum-manager. This is Materazzi's first coaching assignment.
Owners: Actor Abhishek Bachchan, India cricket captain MS Dhoni and Vita Dani.
Foreign club link: The club reportedly has a technical tie-up with Italian giants Inter Milan.
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Delhi Dynamos FC
Marquee player: Alessandro del Piero. The prolific striker is a legend back in Italy and at Italian giants Juventus, where he spent 19 years of his career, 11 as their captain. His was with Australian football club Sydney FC last
season.
Squad: Jagroop Singh, Kristof van Hout, Marek Cech (goalkeepers); Anwar Ali, Govin Singh, Munmun Timothy Lugun, Naoba Singh, Robert Lalthlamuana, Shouvik Ghosh, Stijn Houben, Wim Raymaekers (defenders); Adil Khan, Bruno Herrero Arias, Francis Fernandes, Gustavo Marmentini dos Santos, Hans Mulder, Henrigue Dinis Oliveira Dias, Manish Bhargav, Pavel Elias, Shylo Malswamtluanga, Souvik Chakraborthy, Steven Dias, Mads Junker (midfielders); Alessandro Del Piero, Manandeep Singh, Morten Skoubo (forwards).
Coach: Harm van Veldhoven, who will be coaching outside Belgium for the first time.
Owners: DEN Networks, which is India's largest cable TV distribution company.
Foreign club link: Dynamos have a partnership with Dutch side Feyenoord.
FC Goa
Marquee player: Robert Pires. The winger was part of Arsenal's 'Invincibles' side which went 49 games without losing in EPL in 2003-2004. Pires, who last played for Aston Villa in 2011, was also a part of France squad that won the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2000.
Squad: Jan Seda, Laxmikant Kattimani (goalkeepers); Andre Santos, Debabrata Roy, Gregory Arnolin, Narayan Das, Prabir Das, Rowilson Rodrigues, Youness Bengelloun, Zohib Fakhruddin (defenders); Robert Pires, Alwyn George, Bruno Pinheiro, Clifford Miranda, Edgar Marcelino, Mandar Rao Desai, Peter Carvalho, Pronay Halder, Romeo Fernandes, Sheikh Jewel Raja (midfielders); Gabriel Fernandes, Holicharan Narzary, Miguel Herlein, Miroslav Slepicka, Tolgay Ozbey (forwards).
Coach: Zico. The Brazilian has had coaching stints with the national sides of Japan and Iraq besides managing clubs like Fenerbahce.
Owners: Cricketer Virat Kohli, industrialist Venugopal Dhoot and Goan business tycoons Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo.
Foreign club link: None
FC Pune City
Marquee player: David Trezeguet. The striker was part of two Scudetto-winning Juventus sides. Besides scoring France's golden goal winner against Italy in the Euro 2000 final, he was also part of the 1998 World Cup-winning team.
Squad: Arindam Bhattacharya, Emanuele Belardi, Lalit Thapa (goalkeepers); Andres Felipe Gonzalez Ramirez, Anupam Sarkar, Bruno Cirillo, Daniele Magliocchetti, Deepak Devrani, Dharamraj Ravanan, Park Kwang-II, Pritam Kotal, Saidou Mady Panandetiguiri (defenders); Ashutosh Mehta, Davide Colomba, Israil Gurung, Kostas Katsouranis, Lenny Rodrigues, Manish Maithani, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Omar Andres Rodrigues Martinez, Pratik Shinde, Tapan Maity (midfielders); David Trezeguet, Ivan Bolado Palacios, Joaquim Abranches, MacPherlin Dudu Omagbemi (forwards).
Coach: Franco Colomba, who has coached 14 clubs back in Italy.
Owners: The Wadhawan Group along with actor Hrithik Roshan.
Foreign club link: Italian club Fiorentina own a stake in the Pune franchise.
Kerala Blasters FC
Marquee player: David James. The former England goalkeeper, who has played for clubs like Liverpool, Aston Villa, West Ham and Manchester City among others will be coaching and playing for the South Indian side. He played for Iceland club IBV last year.
Squad: David James, Sandip Nandy, Luis Barreto (goalkeepers); Nirmal Chettri, Avinabo Bag, Sandesh Jhingan, Gurwinder Singh, Ramandeep Singh, Saumik Dey, Cedric Hengbart, Raphael Romey, Colin Falvey, Erwin Spitzner, James McAllister (defenders); Victor Herrero Forcada, Penn Orji, Sushanth Mathew, Mehtab Hossain, Duleep Menon, Godwin Franco, Renedy Singh, Ishfaq Ahmed (midfielders); Michael Chopra, Andrew Barisic, Pedro Gusmao, Milagres Gonsalves, CS Sabeeth, Iain Hume (forwards).
Coach: David James. He played a similar player-coach role with Iceland club IBV.
Owners: The team is owned jointly by Indian cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar and entrepreneur Prasad Potluri.
Foreign club link: None
Mumbai City FC
Marquee player: Freddie Ljungberg. Another member of Arsenal's 'Invincibles' side, the winger collected two Premier League titles and three FA Cups during his time at the Gunners which made him a legend with the club's supporters. He has come out of retirement, having last played for J-League side Shimizu S-Pulse back in 2012.
Squad: Subrata Pal, Ishan Debnath, Andre Pereira (goalkeepers); Deepak Mondal, Peter Costa, Raju Gaikwad, Syed Rahim Nabi, Manuel Friedrich, Pavel Cmovs, Ilias Pollali, Johan Letzelter (defenders); Asif Kottayil, Lalrin Fela, Ram Malik, Lalrindika Ralte, Franciso Luque, Javi Fernandez, Jan Stohanzl, Tiago Ribeiro (midfielders); Nicolas Anelka, Fredrik Ljunberg , Diego Nadaya, Abhishek Yadav, Nadong Bhutia, Rohit Mirza, Sushil Kumar Singh, Subash Singh (forwards).
Coach: Peter Reid, the former manager of Man City, Sunderland, Coventry and Plymouth.
Owners: Bollywood actor Ranbir Kapoor and chartered accountant Bimal Parekh.
Foreign club link: None
Northeast United FC
Marquee player: Joan Capdevila. The left back has mainly played for Spanish clubs like Deportivo La Coruna and Villarreal. The 36-year-old was part of the victorious Spain squads at the 2008 Euros and the 2010 World Cup.
Squad: Alexandros Tzorvas, Kunzang Bhutia, Rehenesh TP (goalkeepers); Khongjee, Jibon Singh, Massamba Lo Sambou, Miguel Angelo Moita Garcia, Pritam Kumar Singh, Robin Gurung, Tomas Josl (defenders); Alen Deory, Boithang Haokip, David Ngaihte, Do Dong-Hyun, Guilherme Felipe de Castro, Isaac Chansa, Kondwani Mtonga, Milan Singh, Zodingliana (midfielders); Cornell Glen, Durga Boro, James Keene, Luis Alfredo Yanes Padilla, Radeem Thang, Seiminlen Doungel, Sergio Contreras (forwards).
Coach: Ricki Herbert. Herbert managed the New Zealand national team during the 2010 World Cup. Herbert quit after New Zealand failed to qualify for the 2014 World Cup.
Owners: Bollywood actor John Abraham and owners of I-League club Shilong Lajong.
Foreign club link: None
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