The European connection in ISL dominance
KOLKATA/MUMBAI: In four of the seven Indian Super League (ISL) seasons, at least one semifinalist has been a team handheld by a European football power. In three seasons including the one that ended on Saturday, that team was the champion. If Atletico de Kolkata won in 2014 and 2016 and made the semi-finals in 2015, it was in no small measure because of the support from part-owners Atletico Madrid. And it wasn’t a coincidence either that Mumbai City FC were champions in their first full season as a City Football Group (CFG) club.
That is why before Saturday’s final, Mumbai City coach Sergio Lobera said: “Pep Guardiola and all family of CFG is behind us.” Prior to the start of the season, Lobera had said that he hadn’t received such support before. With little time for pre-season and the need to spend five months in a bio-secure bubble, inputs from CFG were key. It meant Lobera didn’t “have to waste time as a coach to explain exactly what I want and what the players need to try to put in a good performance.”
When ISL began on November 20 last year, Mumbai City were days short of being a year old at CFG, who own 65% of the ISL franchise. “Throughout season 6 they were very included. They had visibility on the entire league. So, when it came to planning for season 7, they hit the ground running,” said an official familiar with the development. Not authorised to speak to the media, the official requested anonymity. That in Lobera they trusted showed how in tune CFG were with ISL. Lobera had taken FC Goa to the 2018-19 final and two semi-finals. In 2019-20 before he was sacked, Lobera had guided Goa to the top of the league, which gave them the right to be the first Indian team in the next month’s Asian Champions League main round.
“Soon after leaving Goa, Lobera was meeting Ferran Sorriano (Manchester City’s CEO) in Manchester. CFG understood the importance of not getting someone new but trusting someone who had delivered in India,” said an ISL official who also didn’t want to be named.
Along with Txiki Begiristain, City’s director of football, and Damien Willoughby, the CFG India CEO who moved to Mumbai from the Singapore office, plans for Mumbai were firmed up, said the official. Subsequently, CFG also got Ajin Jacob Abraham, senior commercial manager, to take interest in Mumbai City, said the official.
Financial muscle
CFG’s financial muscle helped Lobera get the core of foreign players and most of the technical staff from FC Goa and striker Bartholomew Ogbeche, who provided the assist for Bipin Singh’s winner on Saturday, from Kerala Blasters. “From building a team with ₹12-13 crore and pretty much live year on year, Mumbai now had ₹16-17 crore to spend on players,” said the official.
ISL has a players’ salary cap of ₹16.5 crore but this excludes loan and transfer fees. So striker Adam le Fondre could be sold the idea of playing in Mumbai on loan from A-League’s Sydney FC.
“If you see where most of the CFG clubs are, they’ve all tended in one direction—up towards the silverware. That attracted me here,” he said in an interview.
Further examples of spending wisely were getting on loan 23-year-old Japanese midfielder Cy Goddard from Italy Serie B side Benevento and defender Hernan Santana from Spain’s second tier club Sporting Gijon.
From 2014-16, Atletico de Kolkata had benefited similarly from Atletico Madrid’s network. Not just before the season but also when injury replacements were needed. Henrique Sereno came as one in 2016, won ISL that term and was named Chennaiyin FC captain in what turned out to be another title-winning campaign next season. Dejan Lekic was another replacement who came good after Helder Postiga was injured in 2015.
And when Antonio Lopes Habas left for FC Pune City, the Madrid club got former player Jose Molina as coach in 2016. The former international goalie is now the Spanish federation’s sporting director.
CFG also used its network—10 clubs, close to 100 teams (men & women) and 3,000 players and coaches in 14 countries, said Willoughby—to ensure health and wellness of Mumbai City players.
“CFG has provided an unrivalled level of support to our football operations in Mumbai City FC. Brian Marwood (managing director, global football), Matt Rea (scouting and recruitment head) and the team have been pivotal in all areas, from the recruitment of Sergio and his staff, identification, analysis and recommendation of potential player signings, input into training regimes, experience of global sporting Covid protocols, latest insights into performance analysis, squad planning, player development pathways and sports psychology during the season,” said Willoughby, in an email on Sunday.