But in the modern era of football, we often see coaches put defenders up forward for set-pieces to score goals. Some defenders are even capable of scoring goals from open play.
And same is story in Indian Football as most of the coaches prefer to put their centre-backs up-front for set-pieces, which gives them an extra man forward and more chances of scoring goals.
Indian Super League: Most Goal Scoring Centre-Back in the History
Today, Indian Football News take a look at all-time top goalscoring centre-backs in the Indian Super League's history.
Mourtada Fall - 8 Goals
At the fore-front of this list is former FC Goa and current Mumbai City FC centre-back Mourtada Fall with a massive 8 goals in his 3 seasons playing in India.
Mourtada Fall stands at 6 feet 3 inch and belongs from Senegal. He started his professional career at Moghreb Tétouan, a Moroccan club. He was part of the Moghreb Tétouan that consisted his current teammate Hugo Bonous while Ahmed Jahouh also use to play for the team. And reason behind all of them coming to India is their head coach Sergio Lobera.
Ever since he has came to India, his goal-scoring ability is just getting better season by season, he has scored 13 goals after arriving in India, before that, Fall had scored only 4 goals.
Juanan - 5 Goals
The second name on our list is the current Bangaluru FC center-back Juanan who has scored a total of 5 goals in the Indian Super League in his 5 seasons in India.
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Juanan came to India in 2016 when Bangaluru FC was still playing in the then first tier league of Indian Football, the I-League. From the 2017-18 season to the 2019-20 season in Indian Super League, he had scored only 3 goals, but in the 2020-21 season, he scored 2 goals and now his total goal number stands at 5 goals, all playing for Bengaluru FC.
Lucian Goian - 5 Goals
The now 38 year old Romanian centre-back Lucian Goina stands 3rd in list with 5 goals in his long career at the Indian Super League.
Throughout his career, Lucian Goian has score 13 goals, of which, his best came while playing in India. Goian arrived to the scenes of Indian Football in the 2016-17 season signing for Mumbai City FC and then during the 2019-20 season, he signed for Chennaiyin FC. In between, he went for a small trip to Australia in 2017 playing for Perth Glory.
Mailson Alves - 5 Goals
Next name on the list is Brazilian centre-back Mailson Alves who has scored 5 goals in his career at the Indian Super League. He arrived in Indian Football in the inaugural season of Indian Super League with Chennaiyin FC, and featured for NorthEast United once.
But his goal-scoring ability came into display when he rejoined Chennaiyin FC in 2017-18 season, as he scored all of the five goals after that.
Stephen Eze - 4 Goals
And then we talk about a latest arrival to Indian Football, former Nigeria international centre-back Stephen Eze, who has scored 4 goals on his debut season. Eze signed for Indian Super League club Jamshedpur FC in the summer of 2020-2021 season.
He made an instant impact in Indian Football, scoring the joint most amount of goals scored by a centre-back in 2020-2021 season, finishing with equal goals to Mourtada Fall (4 Goals).
Tiri - 3 Goals
Next on the list is by far the best centre-back ever to have played in the Indian Super League, Tiri. Attacking wise he is not so good as the names mentioned above, but when it comes defending, he is wall that is tough to brake. Tiri has scored total 3 goals in the competition's history.
Tiri has been playing in the Indian Super League from the 2nd season of the competition when he joined Atletico de Kolkata in 2015. He won the league with the club the very next year.
He then spent a couple of seasons playing for Jamshedpur FC before joining the green and maroon brigade ATK Mohun Bagan last year.
Over the years, Indian Super League and Indian Football has seen a lot of attacking-minded players play in the country and above names are a big example of it.
Although a lot of strikers have made name for themselves in the Indian Football, these defenders holds a special place in the hearts of Indian Football fans around the country, and there is no doubt to it.
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