MARQUEE MANIA: More manager, Carlos just fills in the need for ISL teams to field an icon

DELHI DYNAMOS MISSED OUT ON a semi-final berth last year by just one point. Now, while they weren't that bad when it comes to scoring goals (scored 16, joint 3rd highest in ISL), if you factor in the fact that they failed to score a goal in 4 matches and lost a total of 3 matches by one goal margins, one can speculate that if they had just scored one more goal, their entire season could have ended very differently. 

Now, Delhi Dynamos had spent a fortune to secure the services of the Italian World Cup winner and all time goal-scoring record holder for Serie A giants Juventus, Alessandro Del Pierro. The move backfired on them like a cheap country-made pistol. As the games passed by, it became more and more obvious that Del Pierro was but a shadow of his former self, and was struggling to adjust to the Indian conditions and the frequent travelling and matches that ISL demanded. The star forward played 10 matches for Delhi Dynamos, and scored but once, from a free-kick. 

So, if the marquee player Delhi Dynamos had invested so much in purely to get goals in return, could have produced one more goal, to win a 0-0 draw or save a one-goal defeat, their season could have been saved. But he didn't. And the bereaved Delhi Dynamos management learned a few valuable lessons, first and foremost of which was not to throw money at a past-his-prime striker nearing 40 and expect boatloads of goals in return. 

The other few lessons, which they have since implemented in the ways they went about doing transfer business and pre-season. As much as possible, they retained players that did well for them. They trusted their goal-scoring department on relatively young, in-game players who were fit enough to take the fatigue. They played their pre-season friendlies against well-established Swedish and Danish clubs rather than lower division Indian clubs. And they acquired a more nuanced idea about what a marquee player was supposed to be about. 

That is to say, they effectively did away with the so-called "marquee player." The whole concept of having one special, "marquee player" is largely incompatible with a team game like football anyway, and is ultimately a gimmicky feature to sell the ISL brand at casual fans. So their new answer to the marquee rule was equally gimmicky. 

They signed Roberto Carlos, legendary Brazilian left back who spent much of his club career at prominent European clubs like Real Madrid, Fenerbahçe and Corinthians and who had been purely a manager since 2013, as their manager. By the time the surreal free-kick bender had arrived in India, however, he was ready to deliver yet another mind-bender: he was coming out of retirement as a player, ready to bend them again. And yes, he was to be the marquee player for Delhi Dynamos.

So, basically Delhi Dynamos managed to bend the rules to run their manager off as their marquee player. Now, there's no doubt that the 42 year old still has some of the touch, that he can play a half or two here and there and slot in some free kicks if given a chance, but there is no way he is going to play a central role as a player in the upcoming ISL. His managerial duties are far greater and will receive extra preference.

Roberto isn't stupid; he knows his glory days as a player are well behind him, while being a manager is his future. By agreeing to be the marquee player all he is doing is playing with the rules that the franchises have to play by. And he isn't alone in doing this. Anelka is doing the same at Mumbai City. 

It's quite possibly one of the most nuanced take on the NFL-esque "marquee player" rule we have from an ISL franchise so far.

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