ISL: East Bengal announces departure of five players ahead of 2024-25 season

Indian Super League outfit East Bengal announced the departure of five first-team players on Saturday ahead of the 2024-25 season.

The players include Mandar Rao Dessai, Felicio Brown Forbes, Victor Vazquez, Aleksandar Pantic, and Ajay Chhetri. All of them were out of contract with the Kolkata-based side.

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Dessai, an experienced defender in the ISL, had 17 appearances for the Red and Gold Brigade in the 2023-24 season, which included five clean sheets. Costa Rican forward Forbes could only manage one goal in 11 appearances, which came on his debut — against NorthEast United FC.

Former Barcelona midfielder Vazquez showed his experience with an 86 per cent passing accuracy, but could only muster a single assist in his 10 appearances for the Indian club. Chhetri, another player who operates from the centre of the pitch, scored one goal in nine games, but passed the ball around with great accuracy (85 per cent).

Pantic, the Serbian defender, played just the eight games for East Bengal, and created one goal in those appearances.

The Kolkata-based side finished ninth in the ISL points table at the end of the 2023-24 season, but clinched the 2024 Kalinga Super Cup to book a place in the 2024-25 AFC Champions League 2 (formerly AFC Cup) preliminary stages.