The ISL is back! The 2026 season of the Indian Super League begins on February 14, after months of uncertainty and upheaval.
As of now, 14 teams, including the newly promoted Inter Kashi, have confirmed their participation in a truncated version of the original league.
As is customary now, ESPN India pick out 6 aspects of every team – the coach, the best player, the team’s biggest strength, their major worries, what to watch out for, and their most exciting new signing. We’ve also made predictions, but this is Indian football, and some predictions can be almost facts, and others the most uncertain thing we can do here.
Coach: (NEW) Sergio Lobera. A proven force in the ISL joins a proven force in the ISL. Lobera replaced Jose Molina, who Bagan parted ways with after the unsuccessful Super Cup campaign.
Player: Jamie Maclaren. Jason Cummings. Pick one. Both perhaps fighting it out for the tag of the best player in league.
Strength: Their strength in depth, and just the absolute quality of their starters. It is pretty much the squad that won the ISL last year at a canter, with Mehtab Singh added to it, and Robinho replacing Greg Stewart.
Worry: How will Lobera fare without the likes of Ahmed Jahouh and Mourtada Fall? He’s never really had to deal with that situation since he came into Indian Football in 2017. The one time in that period when he didn’t have access to Fall and Jahouh was in a spell with Sichuan Jiuniu in the Chinese second division, that didn’t end well.
W2W4: Can anyone face up to the might of Bagan?
Signing: Mehtab Singh. They’ve now added depth to the right-back position, where they only really had Asish Rai to pick.
Prediction: Bagan will win the ISL, it’s perhaps the easiest prediction to make in the whole chaos of Indian Football at this moment in time.
Coach: Manolo Marquez is still there, and still winning trophies, as Goa did in the Super Cup in December. That ill-fated spell with the Indian national team is over, and Goa have access again to one of the ISL’s best ever coaches.
Player: Dejan Drazic. He’s one of two foreigners who still remain at FC Goa, with the others having left on loan elsewhere. Drazic is a wily customer in attack, and a scorer of important goals. He’ll have the responsibility of guiding Goa’s Indian attackers through the season.
Strength: It really is Marquez and his ability to get the best out of Indian players season after season in the ISL. He’ll have to put that ability to use once more, and get even more out of the likes of Brison Fernandes, Udanta Singh, and Ayush Dev Chhetri.
Worry: It really is Marquez and his ability to get the best out of Indian players season after season in the ISL. He’ll have to put that ability to use once more, and get even more out of the likes of Brison Fernandes, Udanta Singh, and Ayush Dev Chhetri.
W2W4: Ishan Pandita is back in the top tier of Indian Football, and it’s perhaps his biggest chance to show that he’s still got the wares to make significant contributions at this level. Pandita will likely have to be the starting striker for Goa.
Signing: Abdul Rabeeh. Pace, tenacity, and previous experience with Marquez. He’ll be an important outlet on the right wing for Goa.
Prediction: A title challenge may be a step too far for a squad stripped off so much talent.
Coach: (NEW) Renedy Singh. Gerard Zaragoza was in charge of Bengaluru at the Super Cup, but he’s since left to join Panserraikos in the Greek Super League. Former India international Renedy worked under Zaragoza and now takes over the reins full time.
Player: Ryan Williams. A proven goal-scorer in the ISL, and now there will be more eyes on his form, given its implications for the Indian national team. How he links up with the likes of Sunil Chhetri and Ashique Kuruniyan will be crucial in deciding the fate of Bengaluru’s season.
Strength: Ryan Williams. A proven goal-scorer in the ISL, and now there will be more eyes on his form, given its implications for the Indian national team. How he links up with the likes of Sunil Chhetri and Ashique Kuruniyan will be crucial in deciding the fate of Bengaluru’s season.
Worry: Defensive depth. What if Bheke or Chinglensana get injured? Who are their backup options at centre-back? Do they have someone from the youth teams ready to fill in?
W2W4: Braian Sanchez. The Argentine no.10 was Bengaluru’s most impressive player at the Super Cup and will have to pull the strings in midfield again. Bengaluru were a poor side whenever they were without Alberto Noguera’s creativity last season, and now it is Sanchez’s turn to fill that Noguera void.
Signing: A bunch of exciting young players. We’ve seen Lalremtluanga Fanai and Vinith Venkatesh already play for Bengaluru in the ISL. Striker Taorem Kelvin Singh had an impressive outing at the Super Cup, and there is a lot of excitement within Bengaluru ranks about midfielder Soham Varshneya.
Prediction: Like Goa, they have talent in their squad, but a title race might be a step too far for them.
Coach: Juan Pedro Benali, who has transformed the club in the last two seasons, stays on.
Player: Michel Zabaco. Captain. One of the best centre-backs in the league. Superb ball player with his left foot. Knows the ISL having already spent two seasons in India before.
Strength: Familiarity. Benali is still there and so are the bulk of the Indians who featured in their fourth-place finish in the league last season.
Worry: Alaaeddine Ajaraie isn’t with them. So where are the goals coming from? Ajaraie scored 23 out of 46 that they scored last season. Can they trust the likes of Parthib Gogoi, Thoi Singh, Lalrinzuala Lalbiaknia and Macarton Nickson with sharing that burden?
W2W4: See above. It’s a worry to not have Ajaraie. But it’s such a massive opportunity for the Indian youngsters in the squad.
Signing: Won’t be close to the title, could perhaps face a fight to finish in the top half of the league.
Coach: (NEW) Owen Coyle is back. From Chennaiyin to Jamshedpur he went in 2020, as he won them the league shield that year. He’s made that move again, as they hope for history to repeat itself.
Player: Stephen Eze. Best defender in the league last season bar none. He’s still around for Jamshedpur and is an absolute leader of their squad as well.
Strength: Jamshedpur have amongst the strongest foreign contingents in the league this season. Eze is joined by new signings Madih Talal, Raphael Messi Bouli, Rei Tachikawa, Nikola Stojanovic, and Lazar Cirkovic. It is this set of players who will lead the way for any success they wish to have this season.
Worry: The change for the Indian players from Khalid Jamil’s solid, defensive style to Owen Coyle’s more expansive ways. Can they adapt to it? Can Coyle communicate his messages effectively enough?
W2W4: Mohammed Sanan. Wide player, dribbler, loves beating a full-back. What’s not to like?
Signing: Madih Talal. Have you figured out yet that that is no shortage of exciting creative midfielders in this league?
Prediction: If Coyle sets his team up like last year’s Chennaiyin, they might struggle defensively, even with Eze.
Coach: Petr Kratky. One wonders whether in more normal circumstances he’d have kept his job after a poor last season, that ended with an awful 5-0 loss to Bengaluru.
Player: Lallianzuala Chhangte. Goals, assists, leadership, Mumbai City will look to Chhangte for everything.
Strength: ISL-proven pedigree in their frontline. Chhangte will be joined there by Jorge Pereyra Diaz and Jorge Ortiz, with Vikram Partap Singh and PN Noufal also being additional options.
Worry: They haven’t replaced Mehtab in their defence. They haven’t replaced Apuia from when he left a couple of seasons ago now. There’s a serious question to be asked about their defensive strength.
W2W4: After City group’s exit and lack of financial might, can they compete? Life in that sense is off to a promising start, with the additions of defender Nuno Reis and midfielder Joni Kauko to their squad.
Signing: Jorge Pereyra Diaz. Goals guaranteed.
Prediction: In the Goa/Bengaluru bracket, may not have enough strength for a sustained title challenge.
Coach: (NEW) TG Purushothaman. The former Blasters assistant coach is the new Odisha FC coach. It’s a complete step into the unknown for the club, with this being Purushothaman’s first job as a club head coach.
Player: Amrinder Singh. The veteran goalkeeper could well be a very important player for Odisha this season, given their upheaval, and how that could result in them being seriously vulnerable.
Strength: Difficult to find one, but at a stretch, one can say that Rahim Ali, Isak Vanlalruatfela and Rahul KP could form a decent attacking trio.
Worry: Where do we start? First of all, that they don’t have a training ground or a ground to play matches in, according to the Times of India. They’d have barely had any pre-season when the league begins. They’ve also lost all of their influential foreigners.
W2W4: Will they play at all? Yes, they agreed to doing it this season, but two days out from the start of the league, there is so little confirmed about their logistics.
Signing: N/A
Prediction: Odisha could be rounding off the bottom of the league this season.
Coach: (NEW) David Catala. Another coach has come in, the aim remains the same, to bring the trophy to the most passionate fans in the ISL.
Player: Vibin Mohanan. What an opportunity this season will be for the young man. In the absence of Adrian Luna, it’s a chance for Vibin to put his stamp on this Blasters team.
Strength: The most passionate support in the ISL. And they’re going to be playing at home, in Kochi, at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.
Worry: Their foreigners aren’t the highest calibre, and it generally has taken even the best players some time to adapt to India and the ISL. That is time which really isn’t available in a 13-game season.
W2W4: After how they lost in the Super Cup to Mumbai City, it’s only fair to say that their next method of self-implosion must be something to look out for in the ISL this season.
Signing: Rowllin Borges. An experienced head, a previous ISL winner, perhaps just what they need around their very young Indian core.
Prediction: Bottom half of the table.
Coach: Oscar Bruzon. Led them to the Super Cup final a few months ago. The Spaniard has to repay the club’s faith in him after an underwhelming last ISL season, when he replaced Carles Cuadrat midway through.
Player: Naorem Mahesh Singh. Perhaps the best creative player in all of India, he will be the fulcrum around which East Bengal revolve. His injury, that might keep him out for a couple of weeks at the start of the season, could be a blow in a season where no team can afford to start slowly.
Strength: A squad that seems solid and well-rounded in all departments. East Bengal really do look like the second-best squad this season, behind Mohun Bagan.
Worry: How do they deal with pressure? From recent memory, that has never gone well for East Bengal, who have crumbled at the first sign of pressure. Their fans expect, the club expects, so can the players and staff deal with it on the field?
W2W4: All their young Indian talent. PV Vishnu, David Lalhlansanga, Nandhakumar Sekar, Mahesh himself. It’s a squad brimming with talent.
Signing: Mohammed Rashid. From the evidence of the Super Cup, East Bengal have found themselves a metronomic midfielder, who should do well in the ISL.
Prediction: They should do really well. On paper, they look like the ones to challenge Mohun Bagan for the title.
Coach: Panagiotis Dilmperis. Another coach who’s stayed on from last season. Punjab got off to a really good start last season, but fell off badly in the second half of the season. They also got the better of Bengaluru in the Super Cup in November.
Player: Nikhil Prabhu. He’s now an Indian national team regular. So, naturally, expectations will be high on him at club level.
Strength: Dilmperis’s teams last season were superbly structured and difficult to break down. At their best, they didn’t defend at the cost of attacking firepower and had a serious threat on the counter as well.
Worry: They’ve got among the least heralded Indian contingents of any squad in the ISL this season. And that is a concern, because success in the ISL is almost always directly proportional to the strength of the Indian core.
W2W4: Muhammad Suhail. The star of India’s U23 Asian Cup qualifying campaign last year. Now that he’s had that campaign and there are more eyeballs on him, a successful ISL season could lead to a first senior national team call-up too.
Signing: Muhammad Uvais. Best long throws in the land. They are in vogue in football these days.
Prediction: Could be a difficult team to beat on most days, but unlikely to have enough to be near the top of the table.
Coach: (NEW) Clifford Miranda. The former India international has been thrust into the top role at Chennaiyin. The Super Cup was a disappointment for them, but they have made some ambitious moves in the transfer market for the ISL, which should ensure they are better now.
Player: Alberto Noguera. He was the fulcrum around which Bengaluru’s run to last season’s ISL final was built around. Chennaiyin will have his midfield wizardry now.
Strength: In Noguera and Mohammed Ali Bemammer, Chennaiyin’s midfield has the perfect mix of skill, experience, and know-how.
Worry: Like last season, where are their consistent goals coming from? Spanish striker Inigo Martin is a new addition to their squad, so they’ll hope that he hits the ground running right from the first game onwards.
W2W4: Miranda himself. He’s now the most experienced Indian coach in the ISL, following Khalid Jamil’s move to the senior national team. Chennaiyin were poor under Coyle last season, so can Miranda turn that around?
Signing: Noguera. Proven ISL quality. Class. That is permanent. Chennaiyin will hope to build a platform around which that class can shine through.
Prediction: In that second rung of teams behind Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
Coach: Tomasz Tchorz. As he finished last season with Hyderabad FC, he’ll lead a largely similar group of players into a new era in Delhi.
Player: Mohammed Aimen. Both him and his twin brother Azhar have moved to Delhi from the Kerala Blasters, following Tchorz, who was a youth coach at the Blasters. Aimen’s speed and skill down the left wing makes him one of the most exciting Indian prospects to watch out for in the whole league.
Strength: There is some serious talent in this squad in the attacking areas, with Azhar and Aimen joining the likes of Ramlunchhunga, Joseph Sunny, Sourav K, and Devendra Murgaonkar.
Worry: Do they have enough experienced heads for the younger players to look up to when the going gets tough?
W2W4: Will the move from Hyderabad to Delhi improve anything off-field? No Delhi-based ISL club has made a concerted effort to build a fanbase yet, so there is a big opportunity in that regard.
Signing: Aimen. See above.
Prediction: “You can’t win anything with kids”. That was proved wrong earlier, not sure SC Delhi can prove it wrong, though.
Coach: Mehrajuddin Wadoo. Has an almost impossible task with this cash-strapped club.
Player: Amarjit Singh Kiyam. Led that U17 squad eight years ago and has seen a lot of his teammates become stalwarts at their clubs. He needs a season that can catapult him back into the limelight.
Strength: Not too sure there is one.
Worry: Everything.
W2W4: Can they get through the whole season with no off-field issues?
Signing: N/A
Prediction: Competing with Odisha to avoid the wooden spoon.
Coach: Antonio Lopez Habas. Can there be a better man to guide a club in their first ISL season than the most successful coach in the ISL?
Player: Nauris Petkevičius. The Lithuanian striker is new to Indian shores, but we’ve seen so often in the ISL that a good goal-scoring striker can very often help clubs bypass other holes in their squad. Kashi will hope that they’ve done that with his addition to their squad.
Strength: Habas. The winningest of ISL managers.
Worry: Like a few other clubs, the inexperience of their Indian contingent. Yes, they have added Jayesh Rane and Nishu Kumar to their squad, with their unmistakeable ISL experience. But this is still a squad that doesn’t have much ISL experience.
W2W4: Sumeet Passi. Club captain. Often the subject of ridicule. But what an opportunity for him to prove that he belongs at this level.
Signing: Lluis Tarres. Only for the fact that he’ll be the only foreign goalkeeper in this year’s ISL, and the first since Kiran Limbu played for Punjab in the 2023-24 season.
Prediction: Uneventfully mid-table finish.
