HT Kick Off: Silver linings

The Durand transfuse’s power to surprisal continues. It was ne United endure year and though they may win it again on Saturday, the story of this edition is the team they will play for the title: Diamond Harbour FC (DHFC).

“Three years ago, we were playing Port Trust in Batanagar,” said DHFC coach Kibu Vicuna, referring to a journey that began in the suburbs in the third tier of Kolkata league, took them to I-League through I-League 3 and I-League 2, meet four ISL teams on their Durand Cup debut and win against three of them to make the final.

“Our target is to play I-League and qualify for ISL. This tournament is to check our level,” Vicuna had said before bringing East Bengal down to the ground with a thud. The Spaniard, 53, had referred to Lech Poznań surprising Fiorentina 2-1 in the Europa League in 2015 – he was the assistant coach in the Polish side – to say anything was possible. One day later, DHFC walked the talk.

I will get back to Vicuna and the Harbour Boys in a bit but even in their surprise defeat, East Bengal have given enough indication to suggest that 2025-26 could be their best since joining ISL.

“We are looking to adjust in all areas of the pitch and adapt to the needs of the game. That is the target in this beautiful tournament,” said their 48-year-old coach Oscar Bruzon speaking in the happy in-between period of comprehensively beating Mohun Bagan Super Giant and playing the semi-final.

Including this summer, East Bengal have had 11 transfer windows to build a roster that started with zero players in 2020-21. They had no players again ahead of the 2022 summer window because the investors changed. No team in ISL history have had to go through that.

Given the limited Indian players’ pool, it made building a squad even more difficult. For some time during the winter window in 2023, East Bengal were also barred from signing players.

So, it is only gradually that the pieces have started falling in place. Souvik Chakrabarti was signed in 2022 and Naorem Mahesh Singh came on loan; Prabhsukhan Singh Gill, PV Vishnu, Lalchungunga and Nandhakumar Sekar were bought in 2023; Anwar Ali was a coup in 2024 when East Bengal also signed Jeakson Singh and David Lalhlansanga. Adding strength in depth were Bipin Singh and Edmund Lalrindika this summer. “The squad is much stronger this time,” said Singh, comparing it to what it was when he was with Mumbai City FC.

Waylaid by a terrible start leading to a change in head coach and the inability of the foreign players to collectively pull their weight, East Bengal could not recover in 2024-25 ISL. This time, Dimitrios Diamantakos is among the goals and is getting into good positions; Saul Crespo is supporting the defence and giving Miguel Ferreira the freedom to move up. New signings Kevin Sibille, Hamid Ahadad and Palestine international Mohammed Rashid have bedded-in. Yes, DHFC gave them a lesson in counter-attacking football but one defeat does not a season make.

Which brings us back to Vicuna and DHFC. He had given Mohun Bagan the I-League in his first season in India but from winning with one of Asia’s extant clubs to setting up one was a challenge as different as old is from new.

“We started from zero, with trials,” he said. “We are learning but we are growing as well. Diamond Harbour FC is now known all over India and that is a big thing.”

DHFC have around 60 players and two teams, one of them in the Calcutta League. If nothing is available in India after the Durand Cup, they are looking to play tournaments abroad.

Vicuna was speaking on Tuesday, days after I-League champions Inter Kashi unveiled a residential academy in Varanasi with 60 boys, most of them from Uttar Pradesh, spread equally in the under-13, under-15 and under-17 age-groups. The club, now two years old, has developed two natural pitches, one standard and the other 7x7 investing around ₹2 crore.

“The total investment will be around ₹20 crore over the next five years,” said Prithiijit Das, the president of the club. Watch the video here

Vicuna could be speaking for the newbies when he said: “If we work hard, do the right things and scout well, everything is possible.”

DHFC, Vicuna said, is here to stay. Inter Kashi too given that Das said the aim is to build a squad mainly with players from Uttar Pradesh by 2030. Taken together, they feel like silver linings in the worst of times for football in India.

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