Mumbai City to leave for pre-season training in Valencia

Mumbai, Oct 4 (IANS) Indian Super League (ISL) franchise Mumbai City FC will set off for a 33-day long pre-season camp in Valencia, Spain early on Thursday morning.

Mumbai will play a series of matches during their stay at the Oliva Nova Beach and Golf Hotel in Valencia that boasts of all the modern facilities a professional football club needs for its training.

The head coach of the team, Alexandre Guimaraes, along with their eight foreign recruits, will also arrive at the same time in Valencia from different parts of the world to prepare along with their Indian colleagues.

The Indian players have already undergone their medicals and a short conditioning camp in Pune.

"It's going to be a long and tough season. I need to prepare the players with that in mind so that they can play at their best all the way till the end," the Costa Rican coach said in a release.

"We are looking to play a lot of competitive matches and that too against some strong teams. The goal is to get a lot of match time during the camp and to come back and give a good account of ourselves, like we did last year," he added.

Mumbai City FC haven't signed any marquee player, having opted for a relatively young side, and are looking at their young guns to deliver. Their key retentions include former Brazil U-17 captain, Gerson Viera and Lucian Goian, one of the best defenders in the ISL last season.

The team flew to Dubai last season for their pre-season camp and returned unbeaten. They will look to repeat the feat this time too, just as they are keen on doing better than last year's semi-final finish.

Mumbai City FC will take on Bengaluru FC away from home in their season opener on November 19 and will make their first home appearance against neighbours FC Goa on November 25.

(This story has not been edited by Social News XYZ staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)