Ahead of the second season of the Indian Super League, striker Nicolas Anelka has revealed that Mumbai City FC was the only team he wanted a second stint with. The former France international played seven games for the Mumbai-based team last season.

“When I left Mumbai last season, I said if I have to come back to India, I want to come back only to Mumbai,” Anelka, who is Mumbai’s marquee player-cum-coach, told indiansuperleaugue.com.

Considered one of football’s ultimate journeymen, Anelka began his career at the youth set-up of Paris Saint-Germain. He won the Champions League with Real Madrid as a teenager and went on to win domestic leagues in four countries. The robust target man also carried his club success to the international stage where he was a part of the French national sides that captured the 1997 UEFA U-18 European Football Championship, the 2000 UEFA European Football Championship and the 2001 FIFA Confederations Cup.

The 36-year-old was full of praise for the Hero Indian Super League, reserving a special mention for the level of competition that was seen in Season One. “Well I liked the show I saw last year, I liked everything about India, I like fans, I like Mumbai, I like the [competition] level because the level is high as well,” Anelka said.

Having featured for the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Arsenal, Real Madrid, Liverpool, Manchester City, Chelsea and Juventus, the French hitman has won numerous trophies in Europe’s elite competition over a 19-year career. However, Season 2 of the ISL offers a fresh challenge for the enigmatic striker as it also brings the added responsibility of coaching. Anelka maintains this doesn’t necessarily change his or the team’s overall goal for the season.

“As a player you know what you have to do, as a manager as well. For me the most important [thing] will be to win games. As a player I want to win games, of course as a manager I want to win games as well so there’s no extra pressure,” he said.

Looking ahead to the new season, the mercurial Frenchman believes the team has a potent strike force with several options in attack and a strong squad that is capable of putting up a top show. “We have a strong squad, we have a lot of strikers and we’ll lead our team to score a lot of goals, like I said in football you never know, you can have the best strikers and never score any goals. I hope it’s not going to be like that,” he said.

Asked what his experience of working with Mumbai City FC co-owner Ranbir Kapoor has been like, the former French international said: “As you can see, he loves football, he loves Mumbai, Mumbai City. He is dedicated to Mumbai like I am dedicated to Mumbai. He wants to win because he represents Mumbai City.”

When asked about his thoughts on Mumbai’s newly-launched Puma jerseys, the former Galactico drew some interesting parallels with his previous teams. “As you can see you look good in it. It’s blue, I’ve played a lot of seasons in blue with Chelsea and French national team. Hopefully we’ll look good and play good and win games,” he concluded.