India has been engulfed in football fever ever since it hosted the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in October, and the mood has been carried forward spectacularly, thanks to the upcoming season of the Indian Super League.
The fact that this season is different from the previous seasons makes it even more exciting. This time around, the winner of the ISL earns qualification for the AFC Cup, and then there is also the matter of league expansion, with two more teams joining the previously existing eight.
The first new entrant is Jamshedpur FC owned by Tata Steel. However the second team is the game changer.
This team was founded three months before ISL began in October 2013, but in many ways, they have set a new benchmark for all football clubs in India.
Meet Bengaluru FC – my prospective candidate for the champions of Indian Super League 2017-18 season.
What Sets Bengaluru FC Apart?
Bengaluru didn’t follow the well-trodden path taken by the pre-existing and former I-League clubs when it was formed in 2013. Instead, they took the road less travelled as Robert Frost would say, and they have reaped its rewards.
The club won its first ever trophy in its maiden season by claiming the I-League, and how quickly they found the mantra to be successful that made people take notice.
For the football fans from across the nation working in Bengaluru in different sectors, an ambitious and successful club was a welcome distraction.
Bengaluru FC is bankrolled by the steel and energy giants, JSW Group, so funds were never an issue for the club. But, it wasn’t just the amount JSW invested that led to the club’s success, it was also about how they invested.
It was meticulous planning and effective digital marketing that helped Bengaluru create a new identity for an Indian football club when the I-league as a whole was struggling to capture the imagination of the Indian football audience.
Right from the offset, the club’s decisions from hiring coaches to signing players were spot on and that helped them take quick strides forward, but setting up the first team was only the start.
Setting up a youth academy was always important and the club has one in Bellary, which is 300 km from Bengaluru. To bring the best out of the academy, Bengaluru hired John Kila – who has been associated with youth development in Holland, Japan, New Zealand and Ghana – as the Head of Youth Development.
The quality of facilities and services that Bengaluru aimed to provide at their academies makes the whole initiative even more noteworthy.
The other ISL teams are also now focusing on the development of football at the grassroots level, but Bengaluru FC is already one step ahead of the others, and that’s a big plus.
It is safe to say that what Bengaluru FC achieved in three years has changed the scenario of Indian football in many ways.
Bengaluru’s ‘X-factor’ in a Race to Become ISL Champs
The fourth season is longer in duration and also features two teams more than in the previous seasons. However, there is a strong case to believe Bengaluru will lift the ISL trophy at the first time of asking, just like they did in the case of I-League.
Bengaluru is a club that is accustomed to success despite being in existence for only four years.
They won two I-League titles in a span of four years, and in the two seasons, they failed to, they compensated by lifting the Federations Cup.
However, Bengaluru’s biggest achievement so far has to be reaching the final of the AFC Cup in 2016, and thus becoming the only Indian club to reach that stage. That is the kind of winning mentality they will carry into the ISL.
In addition, the club’s head coach, Albert Roca, has been with the club long enough to know what is expected of him, and also to implement his methods as effectively as possible. Every other ISL club, except for Mumbai City, will start the season under a new coach and could thus take their own sweet time to grasp what is required.
What will help Roca’s case is that he has retained six players, who are used to his methods, and these players include the first choice centre-back pair of John Johnson and Juan Antonio, which could prove to be a pivotal factor in the title race. The most important of the retained players though has to be their star striker and Indian captain Sunil Chhetri.
As for the other ISL teams, except for Chennai who have retained five players, no other team has retained more than three players. But again, these retained players will start fresh under a new coach this season, which nullifies the net effect to a huge extent.
To sum it up, Bengaluru’s experience at the biggest stage will help them gain a massive advantage over the opponents. While the other ISL clubs were away in foreign countries for pre-season, Bengaluru were playing in the AFC Cup and this included a famous trip to North Korea to play against 4.25 SC.
That sort of experience and mentality is hard to beat, which is why Bengaluru will lift the ISL this season.
(Naveen Joseph is a passionate, avid and cognisant sports fan who believes that sports make the world a better place. Although content writing is his forte, he has significant experience in video production and copywriting. All of this after graduating from IIT Kharagpur. In the long run, he hopes to infect the rest of the world with his love for sports.)
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