5 players we never thought we would see in the ISL

#4 Roberto Carlos

Carlos played as a manager and player

For most Indian fans, football is synonymous with Brazil. Their flamboyant, attacking style of play has won the hearts of fans the world over, and more so in India where only the most iconic elements of the game manage to transcend the football cult and reach out to the mainstream.

When the ISL was announced, it was clear that the country was expecting a few Brazilian footballers to put on a show and dazzle the spectators.

Enter Roberto Carlos. It may have taken him a year to arrive but when he did, the entire city of Delhi rejoiced. To have the former Real Madrid and Brazil legend play and manage the club was nothing short of revolutionary. El Hombre Bala’s credentials as “the most offensive-minded left-back in the history of the game” were evident in his philosophy for the Delhi-based club: they scored in 10 out of their 14 league games and scored 10 goals in their last 5 games of the 2015 regular season.

These tactics and performances were enough to catapult Delhi into the top-four, bettering their fifth-place finish at the end of the 2014 season.

Roberto Carlos’s main role for Delhi Dynamos was to manage the club, but he did put on the player’s jersey in three games.