Odisha FC have completed the signing of goalkeeper Ravi Kumar ahead of the seventh season of the Indian Super League (ISL). As per reports from IANS, the Uttar Pradesh-born goalie has penned a two-year deal with the Bhubaneswar-based club.
Kumar comes with loads of experience having played for Indian Arrows, Sporting Clube de Goa, and even Delhi Dynamos for a brief spell during the second season of the ISL. The 26-year-old goalie has also represented NorthEast United and Mumbai City FC in 2017-18 and 2018-19 seasons respectively.
Pleased with the new addition, club President Rohan Sharma said: “I am happy to have Ravi join our squad. He is a goalkeeper with a lot of experience and can give good competition to Arsh and Kamaljit.”
“I am excited to be joining Odisha FC and I hope I can help the club compete for titles and trophies and hopefully play in AFC very soon. Looking forward to joining Ama Team,” said Kumar.
With a host of new signings and a new head coach in Stuart Baxter, the hopes and expectations of Odisha FC’s fans have been raised ahead of the new season. There’s a sense of expectation around the club to achieve a top-four finish this time around.
“The people I have spoken to say that the Indian players are ambitious. I had an interesting conversation with Faf du Plessis. He said that the Indian cricketers (sportsmen) are fantastic when on the front foot when they go on the back foot, they have too much to do. If they don’t do that they will be unplayable,” said coach Baxter during a virtual interaction with Odisha FC head of football operations Abhik Chatterjee.
“So, my job, I believe, is to make sure that my Odisha players feel like mentally on the front foot in any case and I think all of those things will go together into a style,” he added.