After a disappointing 2017-18 campaign where they finished bottom of the league, NorthEast United FC have almost completely overhauled their squad for the 2018-19 campaign, in a bid to challenge for the Hero Indian Super League (ISL) title.

New signing Bartholomew Ogbeche, the former Paris Saint-Germain striker, has been brought on board and will be handed the responsibility of providing the Highlanders with goals upfront, something they lacked last season.

In an exclusive interview with indiansuperleague.com, the prolific striker spoke about his footballing career to date and his new team-mates at NorthEast ahead of their opening match against FC Goa on Monday. Here are the excerpts:

Describe your footballing journey.

It’s been amazing so far! How did I enter the journey? Probably from my mother’s womb. And football is like a religion in Nigeria, where kids play on the streets. So that wasn’t tough for me to really love football. Everyone really was doing it so it was quite easy for me to take it up and naturally, I just loved it from what I saw all around me, and that was the way I got into football.

A moment in your career which you cherish till date.

That moment I feel was when I first trained with the professionals in Paris Saint-Germain. You know, as a youngster, it was my dream and from the moment, whereby, I was called upon to join the first team for the training with all the stars and my idols like Jay-Jay Okocha, was, I think, one of the most glorious moments of my career.

What do you love about your position?

The fact that it is a decisive position, whereby you have to decide a lot of games. And yeah, on the other hand, you could be the villain if you miss easy chances and then you end up losing games. So, I think, I love that position whereby it’s a lot of pressure of course, and it looks to be a position whereby games are really decided.

Thoughts on your head coach Eelco Schattorie’s philosophy?

Positive. I think the coach is someone who wants to dominate play and also play attacking football. Of course, keeping the ball you know, a lot of ball possession which helps in winning games. So, I think until now, we’re making a lot of progress in that area. And I think so far, that’s what I’ve seen and that’s something I really love.

Personal goals going into your debut Hero ISL season.

That’s true, it’s going to be my debut season and my personal goals will be to end up among the first four, to take NorthEast United FC for the first time in its history to the playoffs and we’ll do everything possible. I’ll do everything possible to see that our goal comes true.

How easy was it to gel with your teammates on and off the pitch?

Actually, I would really like to thank them for their warm welcome because they were the ones who made things really easy for me during these five weeks of pre-season. They’ve been the ones who’ve really been warm, with open arms they’ve received me and always asked if I had any problems to come to them. So, yeah, it actually made my relation to them much more easier and going to them for one thing or the other wasn’t or hasn’t been a problem because of the way they received me from day one. So yeah, thanks to them, things have been going pretty much smooth for me until now.

Any player that caught your eye in training?

A few I would say, but we need to put in the hard work and learn a lot of things you know. Mentally also we need to be strong. But a particular player whom I would rather say here, who needs to put in hard work and mentally be really tough, I think is Nikhil Kadam.

Any particular game plan for the match?

Of course, I wouldn’t sit down here and put it out to the outside world. We have a game plan, but we will keep it to ourselves for now.