Mandar Rao Dessai’s exploits with FC Goa in the first edition of the Hero Indian Super League [ISL] earned him a great deal of praise from manager Zico. With a shots-on-target percentage of 70.58%, this left winger was a nuisance for opponent defenders. Born in Mapusa (Goa), 23-year-old Dessai began his football career at Dempo’s youth academy and progressed to their senior side within a few years. He has represented India at the Under-23 level as well. While he led his Goa-India side to victory in the 2014 Lusofonia Games, a bigger reward was to come later – a chance to play for FC Goa alongside the likes Robert Pirès and André Santos, and a manager like Zico to train under. Ahead of FC Goa’s opening match against Delhi Dynamos FC on Sunday at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Fatorda, the midfielder spoke to indiansuperleague.com. Here are the excerpts from the interview.Q. What are your thoughts going into the new season?A. Feeling great. There are a lot of expectations from fans. They want us to be in the final! We’re trying hard and are practicing a lot to try and reach the final. Let’s see what happens.Q. What preparations have you undergone?A. We have been practising for a long time now, we went to Dubai for three weeks; we played a few friendly matches, really trained hard over there. We’ve been working hard after coming back too. Now we’re just waiting for the game on the fourth.Q. What are your thoughts on the new signings?A. All the new signings are really great. Leo Moura, Reinaldo, Jofre and Lucio. All of them are great players. I think they will do really good for our team. And we are all united. Let’s see what happens.Q. And who are you most excited to play alongside?A. I’m really excited to play alongside all these new signings, but Jofre and [Leo] Moura play in the middle as midfielders, so I’m looking forward to playing with them.Q. With your and Romeo Fernandes’ top-notch show last season, fans will have a lot of expectations. How do you plan to handle that?A. I will give my best, even better than last year, I will try and score goals. We both are trying really hard, both Romeo and I, and we’ve trained hard for the upcoming season and will do our best.
