The Indian cricket team’s dressing room is divided into red for Manchester United followers, and blue for Chelsea fans. Indian cricket’s latest blue-eyed boy Virat Kohli, who digs the Blues and goes visiting Stamford Bridge, though can brag a little more now. The next time he walks into the dressing room, footballing arguments involving ‘my team and yours’ will be rendered invalid. The 25-year-old now boasts an entity none of his teammates had ever delved into before. This comes after Indian Super League (ISL) franchise introduced Kohli as their marquee co-owner.

Virat Kohli confirmed his involvement at the inaugural Indian Super League (ISL) by signing up as co-owner of FC Goa on Tuesday. The Margao-based club made the announcement at a Mumbai hotel, where the franchise also introduced its coach, Zico, and marquee player — former Gunner, Robert Pires. The Indian cricketer now joins an already star-studded list of owners for the eight franchises that will feature in the tournament.

The 25-year-old’s inclusion has brought about a trend that draws parallels from the Indian Premier League (IPL) owners’ bandwagon. Bollywood is to the IPL, what cricket-elites are to the ISL. In the former, three well known faces from the film industry — Shah Rukh Khan, Priety Zinta and Shilpa Shetty – serve as franchise owners. For the football-centric tournament, Virat Kohli joins Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar as owners. In other words, cricket serves as an attraction to Bollywood stars, while football is the newest outlet to cricketers who rub shoulders with Bollywood’s John Abraham, Ranbir Kapoor and Abhishek Bachchan.

In recent times, the proceedings in European football, particularly in the English Premier League, have become dressing room talk. Football workout is a popular choice among players. So much so that many hold it as their second favourite sport.

‘Constantly in touch’

Despite Kohli’s involvement in the club being revealed only now, he claims to have been consistently communicating with the franchise even before the player auctions. “I was constantly in touch with FC Goa figuring out players, who’s good at what position and who to pick and not to pick. Our average ages in the squad is 28 and that’s pretty exciting,” he says.

Kohli acknowledges his passion for the game and insists the ISL will play a catalyst for popularising the sport in the country. Yet he also holds a business angle as a motive for investing in the tournament. “Cricket is not going to be there forever. And I saw this as a good proposition for the future. Something I can look forward to when I retire,” he says. The batsman makes it clear that he had to go through opposition to the idea. “People said I was too young or maybe this was too early to take on a business venture. But I didn’t think so. I believed in this and that was good enough,” he adds.

On the occasion, the Delhi-lad also mentions that he is looking forward to getting a chance to train with the FC Goa squad, Pires in particular. Interestingly enough, the Frenchman, 40, will now have a team co-boss 15 years his junior.