Hyderabad FC forward Bartholomew Ogbeche is overjoyed after hearing the announcement of fans returning to the stadium for the finals. The 37-year-old immensely missed the fans and stated that it would be enormous to feel the presence of fans being back in the stadium after a period of two years.

Also Read: We must perform better in the second leg than what we did today: Hyderabad FC’s Bartholomew Ogbeche

The top scorer in the league with 18 goals to his name, Ogbeche netted a crucial goal in the first leg of their semi-final tie against ATK Mohun Bagan in a 3-1 win but is still optimistic of delivering a better performance in the second leg.

The forward had an exclusive interview with the ISL Media Team.

Here are the excerpts from the player’s interview:

What are your thoughts on fans returning to the Finals?

Oh, that’ll be awesome. I think that’s going to be an additional motivation for us, we’ve missed the fans immensely and just the thought of having the fans in the finals has to motivate us. But we still have a long way to go, hopefully in four days’ time, we’re going to come up with a better performance than what we did in the first leg and get to the finals.

What does the support from ISL fans mean to you?

I think they are one of the best fans in the world without any doubt. So passionate, die-hard fans, and it’s unfortunate that they had to go through tough times over the past two years because of COVID, the fans well-being and our well-being is paramount that’s the reason we’ve been playing behind closed doors, so I think just having the thought of fans being back in the stadium will be immense for us as I said already.

And I hope we take all the measures to stay safe because that’s first and foremost. Now that it’s confirmed that fans will be back in the stands, we don’t need any added motivation to get on the field and play. Hopefully, we’ll get to the finals and feel the warmth of the fans, feel their support, and it’s going to be enormous for us.