Professional Footballers in England who have Transferred to Indian Teams.

Football may not be the most popular spectator sport in India, an accolade held by cricket, but it has been growing in popularity in recent years. In the first week of the 2020-21 season, the Indian Super League (ISL) attracted 3.42 billion viewing minutes, an increase from 3.16 billion for the first week of the previous season.

This rising popularity has attracted several England-based professional footballers to the ISL in recent years. Of course, attracting these players benefits the ISL too as it aims to further raise its profile.

For a glimpse of which players have transferred to Indian clubs we’ve put together a table of some of the top names based on data supplied by JustGamblers and provided further insights into each of the players mentioned.

David James

David James is perhaps most famous for his time playing as goalkeeper for Liverpool in the Premier League and internationally for England. James played a total of 572 games at the top level of English domestic football. He was capped 53 times for England.

Towards the end of his playing career, in 2013, James joined Icelandic side ÍBV Vestmannaeyjar in a player/coach capacity. The following year he joined Kerala Blasters in the ISL as the marquee player and manager.

Conor Thomas

Conor Thomas is a midfielder who spent time playing for Coventry and Swindon in his early career. After being released by Coventry in 2016, he signed on a three-year deal at Swindon.

However, he departed Swindon in 2017 to play for ISL club ATK before returning to England to play for Cheltenham in 2018.

Marcus Williams

Left back Marcus Williams began his professional career playing for Scunthorpe United. He then had spells playing for Reading and Sheffield United before returning to Scunthorpe United in 2014.

The following year, Williams had the experience of playing in the ISL for Kerala Blasters. However, his Indian career did not last, and he returned to England to play for Guiseley, in 2016.

Wes Brown

Wes Brown is most famous for playing as a defender for Manchester United where he began his career at the academy in 1992. He went on to regularly play first team football, including being part of the treble winning squad in 1998-99 season.

Away from domestic football, Brown played for England and was part of the 2002 World Cup squad. Following a series of injury issues, Brown spent time playing at Blackburn Rovers. He also took up a coaching role with younger players. Brown’s time in India began in 2017 when he joined ISL club Kerala Blasters where he played for one year.

Peter Ramage

Peter Ramage began his career playing as a defender for Newcastle United where he is now an assistant coach for the U23 team. After leaving Newcastle, he spent time playing at Queens Park Rangers, Crystal Palace, Birmingham City, and Barnsley.

In 2015, he signed for Kerala Blasters in the ISL before returning to England to play for Coventry City and eventually finishing his playing career at Phoenix Rising in the US.