- Friday, April 19, 2024
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S premier football club SC East Bengal on Thursday (23) acquired Croatian forward Antonio Perosevic on a one-year deal that will see him play for the club till the end of the 2021-22 season of the Indian Super League (ISL).
Perosevic joined SC East Bengal from Hungarian top-division club Ujpest FC, starting 13 games for them in the last season. The 29-year-old, who also play on the wing, became Manuel ‘Manolo’ Diaz’s sixth and final foreign sign for the season. The other five overseas recruits of the team include Slovenian midfielder Amir Dervisevic, Croatian centre-back Franjo Prce, Australian defender Tomislav Mrcela, Dutch utility player Darren Sidoel and Nigerian striker Daniel Chima Chukwu.
ALSO READ: Barcelona coach Ronald Koeman won’t discuss future with club
“India is an amazing country and I have heard a lot about how passionate people are about football here. Especially, SC East Bengal and its fan base are much talked about. I have read up on them and I can’t wait to pull on the red and gold shirt,” Perosevic, who is born in Croatia’s Split, said after putting pen-to-paper for SC East Bengal.
The player, who has represented the Croatian senior national team in 2017 and was capped twice, said, “I will look to help the team in whatever way I can and maintain the team spirit. I know the history attached to this club and I will do my best to uphold its legacy.”
He started playing for the youth team of Osijek, his hometown club, in 2010. He made his debut for the senior team as a late substitute in a 2-0 victory over Cibalia in the last round of 2009-10 season. He was Osijek’s highest scorer in the 2011-12 season with seven goals.
He moved to play for Hungarian club Puskas Akademia in 2017 and then went to Al-Ittihad Kalba SC in the United Arab Emirates the next season.
“I have had a good conversation with the management and I am really looking forward to the new adventure. I am looking forward to meeting the coaching staff and all my teammates. I have also heard about the big derby against ATK Mohun Bagan, and that kind of game further motivates a player,” Perosevic told the SC East Bengal website.
SC East Bengal will face Jamshedpur FC in their opening game of the tournament on November 21 at the Tilak Maidan Stadium in the south-western Indian state of Goa. The side finished a poor ninth out of 11 teams in the last year’s edition with just three wins out of 20 games.
