Kolkata: Having already signed two overseas players from the ATK’s last year’s champion team and one member of the Kerala Blasters, the newly formed Indian Super League franchise Jamshedpur FC completed the signing of another former Kerala Blasters’ player Kervens Fils Belfort.
The club following the trend these days took to Twitter to announce their newest signing. “Haitian international striker Kervens Belfort will join the #JamshedpurFC family! More to follow… #menofsteel,” wrote the club in it’s twitter handle.
The 25-year old Haitian striker joins former teammate Cedric Hengbart and former ATK players Sameehg Doutie and Tiri as the fourth signing of the club.
The striker who was previously a part of last year’s finalists Kerala, played 15 times for them last season scoring three goals, while also posing a constant threat on the left wing for the men in yellow.
Belfort also played for Swedish club Syrianska FC in the early part of 2017. He then signed up for Azerbaijan Premier League club Zira FK on June 2016, making four appearances for the club in the UEFA Europa League qualifiers, scoring one goal.
However, it is his international career that speaks volumes about his credibility. A regular member of the national side since 2010, Kervens has made 40 appearances, scoring 16 goals for the national team.
His inclusion not only gives an additional boost to the side but it also shows the clear intent of the head coach Steve Coppell. Having coached Belfort eariler at Kerala, who flourished under him, Steve will definitely hope that the Haitian joins the team at the earliest.
Naturally a srtiker, Belfort can also play in the left wing, the same position where he was deployed for the Blasters and where he ran riot creating numerous attacks, to lead the team into the finals last year. With Belfort in the left wing and Doutie in the right wing, Jamshedpur will not be short of pace upfront.
Joining the ISL as a new member, Jamshedpur has a clear strategy signing all experienced campaigners of the ISL in Mehtab Hussain, Hengbart, Tiri and Doutie for the upcoming season. Coppell who is reknown for building strong defensive teams has already built a strong team without taking any risk of signing stars who has never played in the league before. All the overseas players signed so far have all plied their trade in the ISL and will definitely add some much needed experience to the new entrants into the tournament.