East Bengal seems to have completed the signing of its foreign footballers for the upcoming season.
The club has decided to move on from Messi Bouli, Hijazi Maher, Madih Talal, and Hector Yuste after a forgettable last season, where it lost the Super Cup and finished out of the play-off race in the Indian Super League.
Instead, Miguel Figueira from Brazil, Mohammed Rashid from Palestine, Hamid Ahadad from Morocco, and Kevin Sibille from Argentina have all joined East Bengal and will reach Kolkata later this month.
Figueira will reunite with East Bengal’s Oscar Bruzon, under whom he won three consecutive Bangladesh Premier League titles with Bashundhara Kings, while Kevin Sibille is expected to replace Maher at the back. The River Plate Academy product from Argentina has joined the side from the Spanish third-division side, Ponferradina.
Rashid, who helped Palestine reach the round of 16 of the AFC Asian Cup for the first time last year, will add quality in the midfield, while Bouli’s replacement, Ahadad, will empower an arsenal packed with Indian forwards and the 2023-24 Golden Boot winner, Dimitrios Diamantakos.
The club, however, has also completed the signing of defender Jay Gupta from FC Goa on a multi-year deal before the 2025-26 season.
Indian clubs in the top two tiers of men’s football are allowed to register up to six foreigners, and though the Durand Cup squad has not been announced yet, most first-team members will likely be included in the side.
The 23-year-old was on the Kolkata club’s shortlist along with compatriot Abhishek Singh Tekcham, but as the transfer bid for the latter inflated, the club went for Jay with a fee of over one crore rupees.