Football
Five longest serving players in Indian Super League history
Pritam Kotal is the longest serving player in ISL. He played his 150th match in ISL on Saturday.
Pritam Kotal is one of the longest serving players in Indian Super League. (Source: ATKMB)
India's premier football league, Indian Super League, is into its tenth edition this year, started way back in 2014.
Today, The Bridge brought out the five longest serving players in ISL history:
Pritam Kotal - Defender - 150 Matches
Veteran Indian centre back Pritam Kotal is the most experienced player in the history of ISL. He has appeared in 150 matches with five different clubs.
This 30-year old India international also has more than 50 appearances for his nation. He started his ISL career with now defunct Pune City FC in 2014 and played 12 matches for them over two seasons before making a big move to ATK FC in 2016.
He played a key role in ATK's title-winning run in 2016 when he played 12 matches for them. After that, he moved to Odisha FC for the 2017-18 season where he played 24 matches over two seasons and scored his first ever ISL goal before moving back his former club ATK FC during a mid-season transfer window.
Since then, he has become the essential member of ATK franchise which later joined hand with Mohun Bagan and rebranded itself to Mohun Bagan Super Giant.
Kotal has played 95 matches for them in five seasons, making contributions to five goals - 3 goals, 2 assists.
This year he moved to Kerala Blasters and played 7 matches so far.
Amrinder Singh - Goalkeeper - 144 Matches
Amrinder Singh is one of the most successful goalkeepers in Indian football. He has 35 cleansheets in 144 matches in the ISL for four different clubs.
He made his ISL debut in the second season of the league in 2015 for the defending champion ATK FC. It wasn't a good debut for him as he managed only one cleansheet in 13 matches.
In 2016, he signed for Mumbai City FC and become their no.1 choice and served them for five seasons. In 82 matches, he registered 28 cleansheets and also led them to their first-ever ISL title in 2020-21 season.
After this feat, he mutually parted ways with MCFC to join Mohun Bagan Super Giant for the 2021-22 season and played 22 matches with six cleansheets before joining his current club Odisha FC.
He has played 27 matches for Odisha FC so far and also managed four cleansheets and helped them to qualify for their first ever AFC cup competition this year.
Mandar Rao Desai - Defender - 144 Matches
Mandar is a formidable defender. He played most of his career as a left back. So far, he has 144 appearances to his credit. He played for three different clubs in ISL.
Mandar is one of the star players for FC Goa as he played 97 matches for them over six seasons, starting from the inaugural season of ISL in 2014. He was also the crucial member of the team in 2019-20 season, where first time the league shield award has been awarded and Goa became the champions.
In 2020, he moved to Mumbai City FC, where he played 41 matches and also added two more league shield titles to his cabinet in 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons.
This season, he joined East Bengal FC and played six matches so far.
Lenny Rodrigues - Midfielder - 140 Matches
36-year-old Lenny Rodrigues is one of the most experienced and longest serving midfielders in ISL. He played 140 matches for five clubs in the ISL.
He started his ISL career with Pune City FC and played 29 matches for them over three seasons. In 2017-18 season, he moved to Bengaluru FC who were recently promoted to ISL from I-League. He played 17 matches for them in that season.
In 2018, he moved to FC Goa that proved to be one of his most successful stints in ISL. He simply became the essential part of FC Goa midfield and their aggressive style of gameplay. He played for Goa in 53 matches before moving to Mohun Bagan in 2020.
He played in 37 matches for Mohun Bagan before making his final move to Odisha FC this season; he played four matches for them so far.
Sunil Chhetri - Striker - 139
Indian national team captain Sunil Chhetri is the longest serving striker in ISL history. He has played 139 matches with two clubs. He is also the second highest leading goal scorer in the league with 58 goals.
He started his ISL career with Mumbai City FC in 2015 and played 17 matches for them. He also became the first Indian footballer to score a hat-trick in ISL in 2015.
In 2017, Bengaluru FC joined ISL from I-league. Sunil is one of those rare players who has played more than 100 matches for a single club.
Since then, he has played 122 matches and also captained for BFC and scored 51 goals for them. He is the main striker for BFC and helped the club win the ISL in the 2018-2019 season.
