Md Sporting win I-League title, seal ISL berth
KOLKATA: The highlight of Iftar on Friday evening at Mohammedan Sporting tent, a high-profile affair, was a conversation between club president Amiruddin Bobby and East Bengal executive committee member Debabrata Sarkar. “Looking forward to seeing you in ISL next term,” said Sarkar. “Imagine what that would mean for Kolkata and for the league,” said Bobby.
On Saturday in Shillong in conditions way more pleasant than a sweltering Kolkata, Mohammedan Sporting did that. With a round to spare, an effort that fetched ₹1 crore as prize money. I-League champions for the first time with a 2-1 win against Shillong Lajong means that subject to fulfilling licensing requirements, they will be promoted to Indian Super League.
Which will mean that from a one-city-one team idea India’s toptier football competition is likely to have three clubs from Kolkata. Two of them, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting, older than FIFA and founded in the 19th century; the third, East Bengal, will be 104 when ISL 11 kicks-off.
Argentine Alexis Gomes’ goal 50 seconds after kick-off, an outrageous strike from 40 yards, put Mohammedan Sporting ahead but the hosts levelled through Brazilian forward Douglas Tardin’s 15th minute penalty. Mohammedan Sporting goalkeeper Padam Chettri’s good night notwithstanding, Lajong still had a number of chances to mar Mohammedan Sporting’s evening but spurned them all. Instead, it was Evgenii Kozlov, an early replacement for the injured Gomes, who scored with a leftfoot curler from 20 yards on the break in the 62nd minute.
Thrice they had played the National Football League, I-League’s predecessor, and Mohammedan Sporting could finish no higher than eighth, being relegated twice. This was their fifth tilt at I-League, a competition from where they have been relegated twice and where their best finish apart from being runners-up in 2021-22 was sixth in the season prior.
But under Russian coach Andrey Chernyshov, this was a season the 133-year-old club had bossed. They lost once in 23 games. With two rounds to go, Sreenidi Deccan have the next best record with four defeats. Three teams — Deccan, former champions Gokulam Kerala and newbies Inter Kashi — have scored more than Mohammedan Sporting’s 43 goals (13 of them from tall Honduran striker Eddie Hernandez) but only one of the 13 teams, Real Kashmir, have conceded less. With 15 wins and eight draws, the black-and-white brigade emerged champions on 52 points to sign off a season where they also completed a hat-trick of Calcutta league titles.
“It is an incredible feeling,” said Chernyshov after the win. “One time we missed the title… we have been dreaming of this day every day of the season. It was not easy, sometimes referees were against us. We needed to fight. Our boys stayed strong.”