There could be a few South African players on my shortlist, asserts Stuart Baxter

It has been less than a day since Odisha FC announced Stuart Baxter as its new head coach for the 2020-21 Indian Super League, but the incoming manager has already started planning for his future squad. Reportedly, Baxter is keen on injecting players from South Africa and Scandinavian countries into the ISL side for the upcoming season with him already managing clubs in both the regions.

The Brit is quite familiar with the South African players, with him spending a lot of time in their domestic circuit and was even their national team coach. For the record, Baxter was without a job since he stepped down as South Africa's head coach in August 2019 and was heading for China. But, the current health situation was unsafe for him to make the move and he finally landed at Odisha FC.

“There could be some South African on my hit list. If I have got a lot of young players, which is who I will be working within India, then I need players that I know. So Scandinavians and South Africans will probably be on the list and one or two others that I will recommend. That is the sort of process I will be doing from Sweden before I fly over there when people are allowed to come in,” said Stuart Baxter in an interview with Siya Crew.