Luis Garcia, at a city hotel, on Friday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: From Durga Puja to spicy Indian food, from Mother House to Victoria Memorial Hall — Atletico de Kolkata marquee player Luis Garcia is lapping it up all.

And, of course, football remains the priority for the Spanish star, who is floored by the excitement and fan following that the fledgling Indian Super League (ISL) has generated in India.

Garcia is rather pleased with the fact that his team has come up trumps in both their matches till now, but the affable Spaniard is reluctant to call themselves favourites right now.

Back in the city on Friday afternoon, having won their second Indian Super League match against NorthEast United FC 2-0, in Guwahati on Thursday, Garcia said that right now, his aim is to reach the semi-finals.

“It is great that we are winning. We are improving also. The mistakes we made against Mumbai City FC in the ISL opener we were able to rectify during out match in Guwahati. But right now, I don’t want to project us as favourites. Our goal now is to do well in the league stage and reach the semi-finals,” the former Spnaish international told The Telegraph.

Garcia is excited about the next outing against Delhi Dynamos FC at home on Sunday. “I am a great fan of Alessandro del Piero. It will be a great challenge to play against him. It will be tough, but I am excited,” the former Atletico Madrid and Liverpool star said.

Garcia agreed that the Calcutta team was following the Atletico Madrid model of football. “We are also trying to rest with the ball, and not keep running as we did in the opener against Mumbai City FC. We are consciously following the Atletico style of playing,” he said. Atletico Madrid are the co-owners of ATK, and the month-long training camp in Spain has been good for the franchise, he added.

“We need to control the game more on field. It helps that we have a very strong midfield with Borja Fernandez in it. Every player of the team are trying to improve and play as a cohesive unit,” he added. However, with Borja being shown the red card in the last match, ATK will surely miss him in the next matches.

Garcia said that ATK will concentrate on ball possession. “Our players are fit enough to stay in control of the match throughout, and see to it that we keep the ball in our possession.”

The marquee player is impressed with the Indian players in his team. “They have shown that they have the stamina and skills and that makes our team complete. I wasn’t really familiar with Indian footballers, but we have come closer as a team and they are playing fantastic football,” he said.

Garcia singled out custodian Subhasish Roy Chowdhury for special praise. “He has done extremely well. We are very proud and happy for him. He had to fight for his position with a goalkeeper like Basilio Sancho Agudo, and he did a great job,” he said.

Asked which team in the ISL he feels will give trouble, he said that ATK were not really trying to think on those lines. “We will try to figure out our opponents as the league progresses, but we will mostly play to our strengths. We want to win and that is something that our supporters would want also,” he opined.

Garcia is amazed with the kind of fan response and spectator turnout he has seen in the two matches so far. “It is unbelievable. I really didn’t expect to see such passion for football in India, but it is wonderful,” he said.

“In the first match, at Salt Lake Stadium, it was fantastic to see so many people coming to cheer us. Stadiums in Europe are smaller and we hardly get to see more than 60,000 people packed to see a match. Even at Guwahati, where the stadium is smaller, there was about 30,000 people. It’s amazing.”

Garcia, however, did voice his concern with the artificial turf at the Salt Lake Stadium. “I would have liked to play on natural grass. On artificial turf it is easier to pick up injuries and players can suffer from cramps too. But that is really no excuse. We can adapt to all conditions and will have no problem switching from artificial to natural turf, depending on the venue.”

While football is the obvious priority, the Spanish star, with teammates have been exploring and enjoying Calcutta also. “We went out during Durga Puja. Sanju (Pradhan) and Kingshuk (Debnath) took us out. We did visit some pandals. It was awesome. So many people and such enthusiasm they have,” he said, having obviously enjoyed the electrifying atmosphere of the annual festivities.

“We went to the Mother House. We even went sightseeing a bit. I really want to get to know Calcutta and enjoy it as much as possible,” he said.

Garcia has also ventured to have “spicy Indian food”. “I have tasted the curries, lamb and chicken dishes. And I just love the butter naan,” he laughed.