The stranded foreign footballers of the Kolkata giants East Bengal and Mohun Bagan, who are all set to leave for their home countries, would undertake a long bus ride to Delhi before boarding the international flight.
All the foreigners of the two renowned clubs were left stuck in an abrupt situation after the I-League was called off, with several games remaining to be played, and a nationwide lockdown was imposed to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Embassy of the Netherlands has arranged a special flight which will take the footballers from Delhi to Amsterdam. From there the players would travel to their respective home cities.
“My family is very happy to know that soon I will be in Spain. Fortunately, all are good and we are all set to leave finally on Sunday morning,” East Bengal’s Spanish coach Mario Rivera told PTI.
“No doubt this will be an arduous journey but there was no other way out for us. Otherwise, we will have to stay back here,” he added.
East Bengal has five Spaniards — four players (Jaime Santos, Juan Mera, Marcos de la Espada, Victor Perez) and coach Mario Rivera, besides, Jhonny Acosta of Costa Rica and Senegal’s Kassim Aidara, who are held up in the country.
Mohun Bagan’s five players (Fran Morante, Fran Gonzalez, Joseba Beitia from Spain; Daniel Cyrus of Trinidad; Baba Diawara of Senegal and Komron Turunov of Tajikistan) and coach Kibu Vicuna are also stuck here after the I-League was stalled abruptly due to the outbreak of the pandemic.
Mohun Bagan assistant coach Tomasz Tchorz of Poland and physical trainer Paulius Ragauskas from Lithuania are also likely to board the same May 5 flight.
With PTI inputs