India
Mohun Bagan and Mumbai City both take home silverware at the end of India’s 2023-24 league campaign
Review
There is a debate in India as to which is the better, or bigger, prize to win: the Indian Super League (ISL) shield, which goes to the number one at the end of the 22 regular games, or the ISL Cup. The latter is a knockout contest featuring the top six teams with two emerging to play in the final. Most go with the former, especially as the shield winners go into the Asian Champions League.
That will suit Mohun Bagan, who dramatically beat Mumbai City in the final game of the regular season to move above them to take first. The roles were reversed in the ISL Cup final as Mumbai won 3-1. Both came so close to doing the double, but both can look back with plenty of pride.
It was a fitting success for the league winners, one of Asia’s oldest clubs that was founded way back in 1889, which became officially known as Mohun Bagan Super Giant in 2023 following a change in ownership.
The run to the league title was not a smooth one. Head coach Juan Ferrando was fired early in the New Year after three straight league losses. Technical director Antonio Lopez Habas – another Spaniard, the fourth in a row at the club – took over. The Super Giants won nine of the last 11 and, on the last day of the season, lifted the shield in front of over 60,000 fans after defeating Mumbai 2-1 to jump above the visitors and finish top.
Both came so close to doing the double, but both can look back with plenty of pride
Up top, the twin Australian threats of Jason Cummings and Dimitri Petratos impressed for Mohun Bagan, with both hitting double figures. Petratos also finished joint-second in terms of assists and was awarded the Golden Ball. It was exciting stuff and the fans responded with an average of almost 35,000, the best in India and beaten in Asia only by the big Japanese and Chinese clubs.
Meanwhile, Mumbai were at it from the get-go, unbeaten in the first nine, as they looked to defend their shield won last season, although those hopes took a knock with the mid-season departure of head coach Des Buckingham to Oxford United. The club – part of the City Football Group stable – still went into the final day two points clear at the top before travelling across to Kolkata for that key defeat.
Despite the defeat, there were reasons to be cheerful. Amongst a dearth of Indian players in the top scorers list, the two best local performers in front of goal wore Sky Blue. Lallianzuala Chhangte, widely regarded as the best domestic player of the season and perhaps the best full stop, netted ten and also recorded six assists, whil
