D.C. United midfielder Santino Quaranta retired last December at age 27. He came out of retirement within two months to join Premier League Soccer in India Travis Clark notes that stars  Fabio Cannavaro, Robbie Fowler, Hernan Crespo and Robert Pires are also headed to the new league scheduled to launch in February.

“I was content being here and doing what I was doing,” Quaranta saod. “I didn’t need to do this. … It was an easy decision in terms of the financial aspect of it, and then once I got all the details about what they were trying to do, that it had some real meaning, who was going, and I was in.”

The chance arose through Quaranta’s connections with former D.C. United forward Jaime Moreno, who knew that D.C. United legend and fellow Bolivian Marco Etcheverry was invited to coach in the league.

The six-team league will be based in the Indian state of West Bengal. Quaranta will learn which franchise he’ll join on Jan. 30, with the teams based in the cities of Kolkata, Barasat, Howrah, Haldia, Durgapur and Siliguri.