5 greatest players in I-League history

#3 Jose Ramirez Barreto

The I-League has seen some brilliant foreigners over the years, but what Barreto brought to the I-League, no one else did. He brought class, he brought tonnes of ability and he brought to the fans the joy of watching a master craftsman at work.

For Mohun Bagan with all their history, he could well go down as the greatest player ever to have worn the famous green and maroon. Sample this, for example, his last game for the Mariners against Pune FC in 2012, there were 35000 spectators at the ground wishing him farewell. That is a larger attendance than some I-League clubs have got over entire seasons.

That is what Barreto brought to Indian football. He scored 238 goals for Bagan and stepped up when the occasion called for him to step up. For Bagan, there is no bigger game than the Kolkata derby against their fierce rivals East Bengal. It is a game in which a loss or a draw would not be an acceptable result for the fans.

And what did Barreto achieve? He became the highest scorer in the history of the Kolkata derby (18 goals), and single-handedly took the Mariners close to winning silverware on many an occasion.

Ultimately, Barreto never won the I-League with Bagan and that will remain a regret for him from his time in India but no one who watched him will ever regret having watched a player who was probably the greatest foreign footballer to set foot on Indian shores.