HIDDEN GEMS: NEUFC - a bunch of budding local youths who all share a Pune connection

OF ALL THE ISL franchises, NorthEast United sort of stood out from the get-go by their insistance on bringing in local talents. 

While other teams have been more pan-Indian when it came to picking up local talents (Mumbai City and Pune City, for example, haven't had many Maharashtrian players), NEUFC have mostly stuck players from the 8 states that they claim to represent. 

It was probalbly the influence of Shillong Lajong FC, the first football club to establish a pan North-East India scouting and recruitment system for its academy, that weaved this philosophy into NEUFC's DNA. Nonetheless, even after Lajong sold off their stakes in the franchise after the first ISL, the philosphy stuck and even in 2015 almost all the Indian players in NEUFC hailed from the North-East region. And their average age tended to be lower than the Indian players in most other teams.

Although the franchise seems to have diverted from that route a little bit this time around - they have picked up some experienced players like Subrata Paul, Souvik Ghosh and Rowlin Borges from other states - but most of their players, and all the promising young ones whose on field presence has come to symbolize the spirit of NEUFC - are from the region.

And when one looks into the hidden gems in their squad - the players full of potential who are yet to have their day in the sun - it's four guys from the franchise's home region who stand out from the rest. (Although, coincidentally, all of them have gone through several years of youth training at Pune) So without further ado, let's take a closer look at them.