ISL final: Masterminds of both teams bring a Spanish flavour in Kolkata

The Spanish flavour has come to rule Indian football for the past few years and hence, it’s not really a surprise that both masterminds behind the Indian Super League (ISL) Cup final on Saturday are from the La Liga land.

Jose Molina will try to leverage on Mohun Bagan Super Giants’ home advantage and nearly unstoppable run this season while Gerard Zaragoza, in charge of Bengaluru FC, will try to gatecrash at their party at the iconic Salt Lake Stadium on 12 April evening.

There is no doubt that Molina, a former goalkeeper who has nine international caps with Spain and plied his trade for clubs like Atletico Madrid and Deportivo La Coruna, is more high profile of the duo. The club management had recalled the 54-year-old tactician for the 2024-25 season as he guided them club to the ISL title in it’s avatar of ATK Mohun Bagan in 2016 while Zaragoza had been the deputy to compatriot Carles Cuadrat during Bengaluru FC’s 2018-19 championship run.

“I think in the finals, nobody is a favourite. Anything can happen. Of course, we believe in ourselves. We trust in ourselves and in what we are doing. We think that if we are at our best, we are going to get the trophy,” Molina remarked in the build-up to the final. A powerhouse in Indian club football, the maroon-and-green outfit has a heavyweight side with a number of Australian World Cuppers like Jason Cummings and Dimitri Petratos in their ranks and will be playing their third ISL final in as many years.

SCORED WHEN THEIR TEAMS NEEDED THE MOST! 🫡🔥#MBSGJFC #FCGBFC #ISL #LetsFootball #ISLPlayoffs #MBSG #BengaluruFC #ApuiaRalte #SunilChhetri pic.twitter.com/97O5jsVeyZ

— Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) April 7, 2025

As a battle-wary coach, Molina is not ready to take anything for granted – especially in the light of a embarrassing 3-1 defeat they suffered at the hands of Mumbai City FC in the ISL final at home last year. It will be a huge letdown for the 60,000-odd raucuous local fans expected to land up at the iconic venue as the first set of online tickets, released on Thursday, has apparently vanished inside two hours.

 Beside their Spanish origins, there is a similarity between the coaches in that it is their first full season with the club. While Zaragoza had joined Bengaluru FC midway through 2023-24, Molina entered the MBSG set-up in the summer preceding this season. The two tacticians’ previous successful previous spells in the league – and familiarity with the ecosystem of the sport here – suggests they know what it takes to thrive on big occasions like this.
 Molina, whose team won 23 of his 43 games in the ISL so far, enjoys a victory percentage of 53.5% - third highest such rate for any head coach in the competition (minimum 10 games) behind only Albert Roca (66.7%) and Des Buckingham (57.4%).

Zaragoza’s men, meanwhile, began the season with five wins on the trot with clean sheets, looking in strong contention to at least finish in the top-two until about December. January came as a surprise for the Blues though with the side losing four of their five matches, even dropping out of the top-six momentarily. Three wins and a draw in their last five league fixtures saw BFC settle for the third place, before storming past Mumbai City FC and FC Goa in the play-offs.

The character shown by Zaragoza’s men in overcoming a difficult phase, coupled with the contributions of seasoned hands such as former Indian skipper and prolific goalgetter Sunil Chhetri, Rahul Bheke and Alberto Noguera propelled them into the final.

“We have Sunil Chhetri, these amazing foreigners, this amazing defensive Indian line, and the best goalkeeper in India. We are BFC. We need to remember that we have been in ISL, and we have played four finals. That says a lot,” Zaragoza, 43, issued a statement of intent before the final.

Over then, to the Salt Lake Stadium…