Ranti Martins vows "revenge", wants to join East Bengal arch rivals Mohun Bagan

RANTI MARTINS HAS vowed to seek "revenge" against East Bengal coach Trevor James Morgan and certain club officials for ousting him despite him winning the Golden Boot in the I-League season 2015-16. And he wants to do that while playing for Mohun Bagan.

In an interview with Bengali daily Ganashakti, Ranti Martins was very clear with his intentions to get back at those who he thought had done him injustice by signing up for their arch rivals,

"Why should I listen to coaches like Trevor James Morgan say I haven't given my best despite being the highest scorer in the league? To give him a fitting answer I must play for their biggest rivals. Some talks are still left, but once they're done I'll announce myself as a Mohun Bagan player."

Martins said this was, for him, a fight for honour, and went beyond monetary interests,

"I asked Mohun Bagan to give me one chance to prove that Ranti isn't over. It's about honour for me, not the money... some East Bengal officials thought I was close to former coach Biswajit Bhattacharya. But if that was the case, would I say in public that if he was professional he wouldn't leave us in the middle of the season?"

Martins revealed that he was already talking to some important figures in the Mohun Bagan team, and said he was looking forward to playing under Sanjoy Sen for the second time in his career,

"Players have to speak through their game... I told Sony Norde, please stay, I'm coming. We'll partner up and prove everybody wrong... I am very close to Sanjoy Sen too, when I played for United SC he was my coach. He knows me, I know him. He's done a lot for me and I want to give something back."

There has been no confirmation from Mohun Bagan about any talks with Ranti Martins. The club is about to play in the Federation Cup final next Saturday, and the officials have said their sole focus lies on trying to secure their only silverware of the season.