ISL Draft 2017: Chennaiyin FC rejected Delhi Dynamos' offer of twice the base amount for Indian midfielder

The 2017 ISL Player Draft saw 134 Indian players getting picked by the 10 teams on Sunday at the St Regis Hotel in Mumbai. The ten clubs together spent INR 48.85 crore to secure signatures of 156 players (including retained ones).

The clubs came in surefooted as they stuck to their picks and although the Instant Trade card was called for time and again, none of the teams parted with their original draft picks as none of the negotiations bore fruit.

One of these situations arose in the seventh round of the draft as Chennaiyin with the fifth pick of the round and their fourth pick overall selected India International Germanpreet Singh. On being selected by the 2015 champions, the instant trade card was immediately hoisted by the Delhi Dynamos.

However, Chennaiyin didn't let go of their choice and got him for a price of INR 12 lakhs. A league source close to the situation informed Sportskeeda, "Delhi were ready to pay Chennaiyin more than double the amount for the midfielder. The offer was bordering around INR 25 lakhs. But for Chennaiyin it was never a matter of money."

Speaking to Rohan Sharma, the director of the Delhi Dynamos Rohan Sharma, later on, he admitted that he was, in fact, surprised that Germanpreet Singh lasted on the board as long as he did.

"I really was surprised that Germanpreet lasted as long as he did. He is real quality and amongst one of the players that we were not previously attached that we really tried to get. We didn't always go for an Instant Trade but he was one which we really had to try for," stated Sharma.

In case you don't know what an Instant Trade is, here is how it works:

• Whenever a team drafts a player, the following 15 seconds after confirmation of the name is thrown open for a trade request.
• A team notifies their intention to conduct a trade by hoisting a paddle given to them within the said time frame.
• If only one team is interested in trading for the player, a period of three minutes is given for the teams to come on stage and discuss the proposals.
• If more than one team is interested in the same, then the teams looking to pick the player via a trade is asked to write their offers on a paper given to them and that will be analysed by the team who has picked the player.
• If a trade goes through, the teams swap picks.

The central midfielder who represented Minerva in the I-League last season was given his international debut last year when came on as a late substitute in India's 4-1 win over Puerto Rico. He, however, failed to get any admirers in the ISL last season.

The 21-year-old from Gurdaspur, Punjab is another in the long list of the graduates from the Tata Football Academy and was an integral part of the India U23 side that took part in the 2018 AFC U23 Championship qualifier.

IND-U23| Highlight of the only goal scored by Germanpreet against Singapore#FootballTakesOver #SINvIND #BackTheBluehttps://t.co/gfzo1JyAZl pic.twitter.com/SESICmnXoN

— Football Counter (@football_countr) July 9, 2017

Germanpreet, the young bustling is known to have a calm and compose presence in the middle of the park - something India can really do with. Compared to Mehtab Hossain, the central midfielder has a keen eye to pick out a pass whilst also packing a punch with his shots from long range.

@Germansingh7 with an absolute ripper. Unlucky not to put @IndianFootball ahead. #indianfootball @fni pic.twitter.com/9fpG8biEGA

— Souvik Roy Chowdhury (@souvikrc) July 19, 2017