Anil Kumar joins Chirag United

PK Anil Kumar has officially joined Kolkata's Chirag United as we had reported earlier.

Kerala born Anil Kumar played really well for Salgaocar in the I-League Division II and helped them to gain promotion in next season’s I-League.

That good showing earned the striker offers from many clubs and eventually he decided to join Kolkata club Chirag United as he wanted to be a part of the passion that exists in the City Of Joy.

Speaking to Goal.com he said, “I got offers from many clubs but since I always wanted to play in Kolkata, I decided to join Chirag.

“Like in Kerala, there is a lot of passion for football in Kolkata. I really wanted to be a part of that excitement and do well under pressure .”

Chirag have signed many other players including Brazilian defender Du, who was Anil’s teammate at Salgaoacar. Other familiar figures in the Chirag squad for Anil are Kerala mates defender Dhanarajan and midfielder Denson Devadas.

The striker feels that the presence of those players will help him to adapt quickly. “I know Du from my time at Salgaoacar and of course Dhanarajan and Denson are from my state (Kerala) so that will help me adapt quickly at Chirag.”

He also feels that the Chirag squad is good enough to finish much higher in the table next term. “While offering me the contract, the Chirag officials assured me that they are building a good team."

“They have already bought quite a few good players and in Subrata Bhattacharya they have a good coach, so I think Chirag have the ability to do even better next season.”

He also gave his thoughts on the chances of his home state- Kerala in the 63rd Santosh Trophy. “The squad has a good mix of young and experienced players. They only lack a good goalscorer but still they will easily go past the cluster stage."

“Then they would probably face Maharashtra in the pre-quaterfinal. If they can get to the quarterfinal round then anything is possible,” he concluded.

Kerala are placed in Cluster I along with Chandigarh and Chattisgarh while Maharashtra are in Cluster II along with Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya.All matches of this cluster will be played at Nehru Stadium, Coimbatore.

From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 26 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.