ISL Season 8 Transfers: Indian Super League outfit, NorthEast United have recently announced the signing of Austrian attacking midfielder Marco Sahanek. The Highlanders were in desperate need of reinforcements and now they have got two in the form of Marcelinho and Sahanek. Follow all the ILS 2021-22 LIVE Updates only on InsideSport.IN
Sahanek looks like a player who will add a lot of creativity to this NorthEast United team. He will look to combine well with the likes of Marcelinho Pereira and Deshorn Brown. It will be interesting to see the Austrian midfielder on Indian shores playing under the tutelage of head coach Khalid Jamil.
Goals ✅ Assists ✅
Playmaking💯💯Welcome Marco Sahanek #StrongerAsOne #TogetherWeAreInfinite pic.twitter.com/sA5c3xsC2v
— NorthEast United FC (@NEUtdFC) January 21, 2022
The 31-year-old attacking midfielder plied his trade for Thai Premier League outfit Nakhon Ratchasima. He featured in a total of 10 league matches and scored twice with as many assists. Surprisingly the Austrian terminated his contract with the Thai outfit after spending half the season with them.
Sahanek has spent the major part of his career in Austria as he started his career in FK Austria Vienna’s youth team. He then moved to Admira Modling and featured for their age group teams. He started getting better at Admira wacker Modling and gradually featured for their reserves. He gradually rose through the ranks and featured for many Austrian second division teams. Starting from clubs like SV Horn, SV Kapfenberg, FC Wacker among others.
His first transfer out of Austria was in Malta when he joined Hibernians FC in the Malta Premier League. The second time he moved out of Austria was when he joined a top tier Thai League outfit, Nakhon Ratchasima. He joined the club in July last year and terminated his contract in early December for some weird reason.
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So he will have some idea about Asian football in general but overall he will have to adjust to the Indian conditions, culture and other aspects to give his best on the field. There are also concerns over COVID-19 cases in the bio bubble. So it will be a mental challenge for him to cope up with all the pressure and expectation and also help his team get the desired results.
The Austrian is a proper attacking midfielder who can find his teammates in tight spots, take on defenders at will and is exceptional from setpiece situations. He is someone who likes to get in the penalty area and also does not shy away from pulling the trigger from long range. So the initial impressions are very nice but only time will tell how he fares for NorthEast United.
The Highlanders have dropped down to the bottom of the table after SC East Bengal won their last match against FC Goa. But Khalid Jamil’s men should focus on their own results and look to win more matches. Marcelinho Pereira and Marco Sahanek’s arrival will surely boost the morale of the entire team and the Highlanders will hope that their team steps up the game and string together a few results to finish in a respectable position in the points table this season.
It has been a tough season for the Highlanders will waning form and persistent injury concerns. Jamil has already lost his star man in midfielder in Federico Gallego who is out of the season with a knee injury. Similarly, combative midfielder Khassa Camara has also left the club after he was called up by his national team, Mauritania to feature in the Africa Cup of Nations. Martinican forward Mathias Coureur who has been a little inconsistent this season has also not featured ever since he tweeted his desire to leave the club and how unhappy he is at Northeast United. on top of that recently Deshorn Brown and Rochharzela also picked up injuries. Chhara recently underwent surgery and will probably miss the rest of the season. There are no updates on Deshorn Brown who has been fantastic for the Highlanders but have massively struggled with persistent injury concerns.
So overall the arrival of Sahanek and Marcelinho are like lifelines for NorthEast Untied to at least put up a fight against their opponents for the rest of the season.
