Chennai City FC outdid their own expectation by lifting the I-league title earlier this year and now entering the quarter-finals of the Super Cup. Their CEO and owner Rohit Ramesh on Tuesday said that the club wants to make up a team around local players and reduce dependence on foreign players.
"Our long-term philosophy is to cultivate our own style of football - the Chennai City FC style -- throughout the ranks. We want our junior teams to play the same way as the senior team is now playing. That would improve the ecosystem immensely," he said.
"For the past few years, we have had a good set of local players as well. You look at the likes of Pandiyan, Edwin Vanspaul, Pravitto Raju, Romario Jesuraj, and Regin -- they have all played successfully at the top level. Our ultimate goal remains to reach a stage where we will be able to build a successful team around the local players, and not foreign recruits," the All India Football Federation quoted Ramesh as saying.
The owner of the team also said he did not expect that the side will lift the I-league trophy and that he is quite delighted with this feat and believes that winning the trophy can augur well for the team.
"We never expected to be where we are right now, and I am quite delighted. This is just going to give a good future with regard to how we play, how each and every local player approaches the game, and how we go about from now on. We had a chat with the coach during last season's Super Cup itself, and we had decided that our prime target would be to finish in the top six, or top four this season," Ramesh said.
He also said that the team changed its playing style this year as it deliberately scouted for foreign players first and build the team depending on them.
"In the last two seasons, we had roped in the local players first, and then our foreign recruits. This season, we did it the other way round. We signed a few foreigners, and then went around to build a team around them," Ramesh said.
Chennai City FC are currently playing the Super Cup 2019 and they take on Bengaluru FC in the quarter-finals of the tournament on April 4.
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