ISL 2017: 5 Indian Super League flops who could have done better with other sides

Nicolas Anelka

Nicolas Anelka

Anelka came to India at the age of 34 and was much younger than the other marquee players in the league at that time. He was billed to be the saviour for Mumbai and some of the faithful from the maximum city billed him to be their messiah. But alas, Anelka failed to impress during his Mumbai City FC days and managed only 2 goals from 13 appearances for the Islanders.

Seeing Anelka’s performance and style of play during the ISL, we are sure that the Frenchman could have been on fire if he played for a team which understood his style and requirements better and provided him with the required support up front.

Anelka and Mumbai was a love story that looked to be made for each other but never materialised. Place Nicolas Anelka into ATK team set up, and the former Chelsea man could well have become the potent striker that he was, back in Europe.

ATK had Fikru in their team but after the initial stages of the ISL Antonio Habbas made it abundantly clear that he didn’t wish to work with the striker, as he caused more harm to the team set up than do good.

Had Anelka played for ATK and received the services that the likes of Borja, Luis Garcia, Jakub Podany had to offer, he might just have ended up scoring tons of goals.