India’s lost football season to kick off finally with Mohun Bagan hosting Kerala Blasters

Kolkata: The wait is over. The Indian football season is finally here but not, perhaps, at a time ideal enough to fall head over heels with it, especially after the way the game has been left gasping in search of clarity, continuity and identity. As Mohun Bagan SG begin their title defence of an abridged version of the Indian Super League against Kerala Blasters here on Saturday, Indian football is facing a strange transition. True, every transition has its own turbulence, but this season seems to be more about unshackling a state of sterility than setting in motion a long haul. Change, though, remains the popular catchword — both as a contradictory and complementary force. For the first time since the league’s inception in 2014, it’s now in the hands of the national federation. But in this change of guard, issues remain and unintended consequences threaten to emerge with the end of the Master Rights Agreement between the AIFF and Reliance-owned Football Sports Development Limited. How the entire ISL ecosystem has bled in this period of uncertainty is there for everyone to see, and shudder. Holders Mohun Bagan are beginning a new life replacing last season’s ISL Shield and Cup-winning coach Jose Molina with another successful and veteran Spaniard Sergio Lobera. “Pressure? Yes, there’s pressure. I think if you don’t feel pressure, it means you don’t need to fight for big targets. I know I am in a winning team, in a champion’s team. I know what is my responsibility and I am very excited about this responsibility,” Lobera remarked during his match-eve media interaction on Friday.Lobera has reasons to be optimistic as the might of Mohun Bagan looks too formidable to be rooted out easily. Because even in this period of chaos and uncertainty, they have the luxury of assembling the players and training for the past couple of months. Kerala Blasters, on the other hand, represent everything about the detrimental effect of this confusing and trying time. They had to part company with their entire force of foreigners including the veterans like Noah Sadoui, Jesus Jimenez and Adrian Luna and new coach David Catala has a job on his hands with the arrival of a new quintet of overseas players with no experience of playing in Indian conditions. ‘We have come here with just 14 days of preparation and it’s not enough,” Catala said. “We’re up against a team which has been training all this time when we didn’t know what would happen to us. It is true that we are going to be the underdog team, but in football anything can happen,” the Blasters coach added.Constrained by financial instability, the state of play has seen several clubs go the Blasters’ way, with FC Goa’s David Timor, Iker Guarrotxena and Borja Herrera, Mumbai City FC’s Tiri and Bengaluru FC’s Edgar Mendez being some familiar faces bidding forced goodbyes to Indian football while Durand Cup champions North-East United FC have loaned out Alaeddine Ajaraie — the best player of the ISL’s 2024-2025 season — to Persija Jakarta in the Indonesian league.