Kolkata: After having a trophy-less season last year, I-League club Mohun Bagan finally was able to give some good news to it’s fans, after successfully signing their number one target for the season, Haitian international Sony Norde.
Norde took to social media site Facebook to announce his one year deal with the Kolkata Giants. He wrote in his official Facebook account, “Very happy to sing (sign) one more saison (season) with MOHUN BAGAN AC …..”
Having joined the Mariners in 2014, the winger soon became a fan-favourite, helping the club win the I-League in the 2014-15 season. He was also instrumental in the club’s Federation Cup triumph the following year.
The club officials had earlier stated that, they will not retain any overseas player from the previous season, other than Sony Norde. Staying true to their word they released previous year’s captain Yusa Katsumi, striker Darryl Duffy and also defender Eduardo. Now having signed up Norde they are definitely looking to built their team around their Marquee signing.
Reportedly, many ISL clubs were interested in the 28 year old. Newly formed ISL franchise Jamshedpur FC even had bid 2 crore rupees to lure the Haitian to the cash riched super league, but Bagan officials outbid them, putting as much as 2.1 crore to bring the star to the I-League club.
With both the I-League and ISL set to run simultaneously this season, the green and maroons had already lost a host of it’s stars such as Debjit Mazumdar, Prabir Das, Pritam Kotal, Anas Edathodika,Raju Gaikwad, Balwant Singh, Sehnaj Singh and few others to the super league. With so many stars gone, Bagan had to sign many new and upcoming players for the upcoming season. Norde’s signing will surely add more impetus to the club as they look to win the I-League for the second time in four seasons.
With the League set to start in November, the Haitian international is expected to join the team in the month of October. Along with Sony, the club has also signed last year’s highest goal scorer in the I-League Aser Pierrick Dipanda Dicka, Japanese midfielder Yuta Kinowaki, Liberian Ansumana Kromah, Australian Diogo Ferreira and Nigerian defender Kingsley Obumneme as their overseas recruits for the season.
Meanwhile, the club is also participating in the CFL and so far has won the first two matches of the league and are in the second position at the moment.