Pronay Halder hopes to see more and more players West Bengal in the India team in future

ATK Mohun Bagan midfielder Pronay Halder expressed his excitement at turning out for the Green and Maroons in the upcoming Indian Super League (ISL) 2020-21 season.

Halder was an integral part of the Mohun Bagan team between 2014 to 2017 where he won an I-League title and a Federation Cup trophy.

“I am very excited to start the new season playing for Mohun Bagan in the ISL. I am looking forward to it and hopefully, we will bring success to the club again,” the Bengali midfielder said during a live chat session on Mohun Bagan Day.

There are numerous players from the football-mad state of West Bengal currently playing in the national team and Halder hopes that the situation does not change in the near future.

“It is a good thing that so many Bengali players are currently playing in the national team. Before us also players like Subrata Paul, Syed Rahim Nabi, Mehtab Hossain and many other Bengali players used to play for the national team. I am personally glad that so many of us are playing now and I hope in future too there will be many Bengali players.”

The India international midfielder also spoke about the difference in style of former India coach Stephen Constantine and current head coach Igor Stimac.

“We are all professional players and we have to adapt to all styles. Every coach has a different style of play. Since the beginning of my career, I have played under several coaches with different styles. Stephen Constantine was a more defensive coach who wanted to play in counter-attacks. Igor Stimac, on the other hand, loves to play a possession-based game. We have adopted well to Igor’s style.”

He also suggested that the national team’s primary target now is to get the best possible results in their remaining World Cup qualifying games. India are winless in five matches so far in their group though they have managed to hold Asian champions Qatar, Afghanistan and Bangladesh. India are out of the running for a spot in the next phase of the World Cup qualifiers but will be hoping to finish as high as possible which might help them in their bid to reach 2023 AFC Asian Cup.

“We drew against Qatar in Qatar. We still have three matches to go in the World Cup qualifiers and we will try to do well,” said the ATK Mohun Bagan star.