Indian Super League (ISL) has gained massive popularity since it’s inception in 2014. It has a global audience and has become the fourth most engaging football league on Instagram recently.
Many international stars like Roberto Carlos, Marco Materazzi and Luis Figo among many others have come to the ISL and played in India. It is quickly becoming a league which international stars are preferring to play toward the end of their careers.
The latest rumour is about Portugal international Ricardo Quaresma. Turkish Super Lig club Kasimpasa announced on Wednesday that Quaresma has left the Istanbul club. He is a free agent now and he is reportedly interested to come to India. He is in talks with several ISL clubs.
Ricardo Quaresma https://t.co/Vc96ZKnEV8
— Marcus Mergulhao (@MarcusMergulhao) August 21, 2020
Ricardo Quaresma has played for top European clubs. He started his career with Sporting CP and then joined Barcelona. But after a low one-year in Spain, he went to Porto and had a good four-year time, winning 3 league titles.
The 36-year-old has also played for Inter Milan and won the Serie A and Champions League but was loaned out to Chelsea. He later signed for Besiktas and won the league title 2 times. He last played for Turkish club Kasimpasa and is now a free agent.
The major achievement of his career is winning the European Championship in 2016. He played alongside Cristiano Ronaldo.
Portugese winger Ricardo Quaresma is all set to complete his move to Hyderabad FC #IFTNM pic.twitter.com/L3l7qGIuMh
— IFT News Media (@IFTnewsmedia) August 21, 2020
Among all the ISL clubs, Hyderabad FC who are revamping the club and has also signed a partnership with Borussia Dortmund are reportedly ahead in line to get the Portuguese’s signature. But even if he is interested in signing for an ISL club, the main problem will be his salary.
Quaresma was on a €2.27mil/yr (₹20crore/yr) contract at Kasimpasa, his last club.
— Harigovind Thoyakkat (@harithoyakkat) August 22, 2020
Y'all are aware that in ISL we have a salary cap.
Clubs need to play the other players as well, so I guess you can imagine how much of a pay cut he has to take, if he wants to play in ISL. https://t.co/BPgVdlLUNs
ISL needs to remove the salary cap so that the ISL clubs can also spend big and bring in some international stars and further increase the overall quality of ISL.
Do you think the Euro 2016 winner is going to finally sign with an ISL club and which club will it be? Lets us know in the comments below.
Do check out: