The Indian men's football team's 23-member squad for the upcoming King's Cup was announced on Saturday evening, with Nishu Kumar and Jobby Justin missing out.
New coach Igor Stimac had initially called up 37 players for a preparatory camp in New Delhi and released 12 players over the last week.
The first batch of six players were released on May 27, including Vishal Kaith, midfielders Germanpreet Singh, Nandha Kumar, Redeem Tlang, Bikramjit Singh and forward Sumeet Passi. The second batch of players - Narayan Das, Salam Ranjan Singh, Anwar Ali, midfielders Dhanpal Ganesh, Rowllin Borges and winger Komal Thatal - were released on May 30. Jobby and Nishu were released on Saturday.
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“The hardest part of the job comes when decisions are to be done about releasing some of them after the hard work they put in for the past ten days,” Stimac had said. “We are more than happy with the commitment of the players so far and have really enjoyed working with them every day,” he added. “They are passionate, excited and are making obvious progress on a daily basis."
Asked about his expectations from the team in the King’s Cup, he said, “At the moment, it’s off-season, and we are introducing our way of work to the players, and improving on their fitness capacities.
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“We are going to use the King’s Cup to try a few different things, and as many players as possible. At this stage the result is not our priority, but at the same time, we are certainly going there to win matches,” he added.
The Indian team will be leaving for Buriram en route Bangkok on June 2 from New Delhi.
Full squad
Goalkeepers : Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Amrinder Singh, Kamaljit Singh
Defenders : Pritam Kotal, Rahul Bheke, Sandesh Jhingan, Adil Khan, Subhasish Bose
Midfielders : Udanta Singh, Jackichand Singh, Brandon Fernandes, Anirudh Thapa, Raynier Fernandes, Pronay Halder, Vinit Rai, Sahal Abdul, Amarjit Singh, Lallianzuala Chhangte, Michael Soosairaj
Forwards : Balwant Singh, Sunil Chhetri, Farukh Choudhary, Manvir Singh
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