Mahindra Super League Kerala kicks off today

Exciting new Mahindra Super League Kerala features top players, young talent, and foreign stars in inaugural season.

There is John Gregory, who helped Chennaiyin FC to the Indian Super League title in the 2017-18 season, and stars like Chennaiyin’s two-time ISL champion Raphael Augusto, last season’s I-League top scorer Alex Sanchez and C.K. Vineeth in the mix.

The new Mahindra Super League Kerala, which begins at the Nehru Stadium here on Saturday night, has managed to rope in some very interesting names. And there are some very talented young players and the new league could be their bridge to big time.

“We are talking about a lot of young players here. My responsibility will be to improve them and help them go to a higher league and to the ISL,” said Mario Lemos, the home side Forca Kochi FC coach, here on Friday.

“The experienced players, who have played at a high level, have to be an example for the young players, they have to mentor them because these youngsters will look up to them.”

The six-team MSLK is the country’s only domestic league that allows foreign players and one prominent name, Alex Sanchez - who won the I-League best player award last season when he played for Gokulam Kerala FC – even turned down Hyderabad FC’s recent offer to play in the ISL this season to stay with Malappuram FC in Kerala’s new league.

Malappuram, Kerala’s most football-crazy district and probably its biggest nursery, will take on Forca Kochi in the opener and it has found some interesting ways to attract fans to Kochi.

“People there have offered a Rs 625 package which includes up-and-down bus tickets, the match ticket and a bottle of water. I expect a 20,000-crowd tomorrow,” Navas Meeran, the Kerala Football Association president, told The Hindu here. He expects the MSLK to fill the vacuum for football fans in the State after the ISL every season.