ATK Mohun Bagan FC

Mohun Bagan were founded in 1889 as Mohun Bagan Sporting Club and are one of the oldest and most historic football clubs in India.[3]

The club's most notable achievement came on 29 July 1911 when Mohun Bagan defeated East Yorkshire Regiment in the IFA Shield final. Mohun Bagan's victory was the first time an all-Indian football club had won the IFA Shield and became a symbol of nationalism during the Indian independence movement.[4]

The club was a founding member of the National Football League (NFL), India's first domestic league, in 1996.[5] Since then, the club has gone on to win five league titles, three NFL and two in the I-League, becoming tied for most successful club in Indian football.[6] Mohun Bagan have also won the most Federation Cup titles (14) and second most Calcutta Football League titles (30).[7][8]

ATK Football Club, founded on 7 May 2014 as Atlético de Kolkata, were a founding member of the Indian Super League.[9] The club was owned by a consortium consisting of RPSG Group founder Sanjiv Goenka, Harshavardhan Neotia, former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly, Utsav Parekh, and Spanish football club Atlético Madrid.[10] The club would go on to win two of the first three Indian Super League finals in 2014 and 2016.[11] After three seasons, Atlético Madrid ended their partnership with the club and sold their ownership stake to Goenka.[12] The club was then rebranded as ATK.[12] In March 2020, ATK won their third and final championship, defeating Chennaiyin in the 2020 ISL final.[13]

Discussions to include Kolkata giants and I-League clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal had been ongoing since 2018.[14] Discussions and rumors continued through 2019 before an announcement was made on 16 January 2020 that ATK owners RPSG Group bought an 80% stake in Mohun Bagan. As part of the purchase, it was announced that ATK would merge its brand with Mohun Bagan to create a merged entity for the 2020–21 Indian Super League season.[15][16] It was also announced that the merged club would launch on 1 June 2020 but was postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[17] The club's name was officially announced on 10 July 2020 as ATK Mohun Bagan.[18] It was also revealed that the club would retain the main colours of Mohun Bagan – Green and Maroon – and the club's new logo was also unveiled.[18]

At the team's official unveiling on 10 July 2020 it was announced that the club would use the traditional colours of Mohun Bagan – Green and Maroon – as their official colours.[19] It was also suggested by principle owner Sanjiv Goenka that ATK Mohun Bagan's secondary colours might be a mixture of both ATK and Mohun Bagan colours- white and red with green and maroon stripes.[20]

Though on November 12 at the official unveiling of the kits for the 2020-21 season, both the released kits followed the traditional colour schemes of Mohun Bagan- Green and Maroon striped Home kit and a White dominant Away kit- with a Champions tag below the club crest, in honour of the successful preceding season in respective leagues for both the clubs.[21]

The third kit of the team wasn't released until 29 December 2020 when the club fielded the team against Chennaiyin donning a Black and Grey striped jersey. The third kit was probably a resemblance of ATK's 2019–20 away colours.[22]

The Sailing Boat of Mohun Bagan was retained in the club's new logo.[23] The sailboat signifies Mohun Bagan's place of establishment: North Calcutta, on the banks of the Ganges. In fact the city was the capital during the later 19th century and a prime trade center of British India, and the main mode of transportation was through the waterways.

The club is owned by a consortium known as ATK Mohun Bagan Private Limited.[25] RPSG Group founder Sanjiv Goenka is the principal owner of the organization while former Indian cricketer Sourav Ganguly and businessman Utsav Parekh are co-owners.[26] They own 80% of the shares, while Mohun Bagan Football Club also acts a co-owner, owning 20% of the organization.[27]

ATK Mohun Bagan will be playing matches at the Salt Lake Stadium, located in the Kolkata suburb of Bidhannagar in West Bengal.[28] A multi-purpose stadium, the stadium is mainly used to host football matches. The stadium was the home stadium for both ATK and Mohun Bagan.[29]

The stadium is owned by Mohun Bagan who currently use the stadium as a training ground. ATK Mohun Bagan owners have a plan to renovate the stadium in near future so that they can use this stadium for their home matces in Indian Super League. This ground is mainly used for Calcutta Football League matches. The stadium has galleries on three sides and a rampart on the fourth side. The north side, a contemporary gallery of the stadium, having bucket seats installed, is for the members.[30]

The Kolkata Derby

Kolkata Derby or the Boro Match is a football match between ATK Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. The two clubs currently meet at least twice a year, twice in Indian Super League (ISL).

Till 27 November 2020, 372 matches have been played between the two teams (354 competitive matches and 18 exhibition games) out of which ATK Mohun Bagan FC (previously Mohun Bagan FC) has won 121 matches and SC East Bengal have won 129 times[31] (including all competitive matches and exhibition games) and rest of the matches ended in draws.[32]

The first match between the sides was played on 8 August 1921 in the Coochbehar Cup and the semifinal match ended in a 0–0 draw. Mohun Bagan won the replayed semifinal 3–0. The first ever derby goal was scored in that match by Rabi Ganguly and the other two goals were scored by Poltu Dasgupta and Abhilash Ghosh.

The first encounter in ISL was on 27 November 2020 at Tilak Maidan in Goa, where ATK Mohun Bagan FC beat SC East Bengal by a margin of 2–0.[33] Roy Krishna and Manvir Singh were the goal-scorers for Mohun Bagan.

As of 28 January 2021[34]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 2 DF  IND Sumit Rathi 5 DF  IND Sandesh Jhingan (3rd captain[lower-alpha 1]) 6 FW  IND Manvir Singh 7 FW  IND Komal Thatal 8 MF  IRL Carl McHugh 9 FW  AUS David Williams 10 FW  ESP Edu García (4th captain[lower-alpha 1]) 12 GK  IND Avilash Paul 16 FW  IND Jayesh Rane 17 MF  IND Pronay Halder 18 MF  IND Sk. Sahil 19 MF  ESP Javi Hernández 20 DF  IND Pritam Kotal (1st captain[lower-alpha 1])

No. Pos. Nation Player 21 FW  FIJ Roy Krishna (2nd captain[lower-alpha 1]) 25 MF  IND Michael Regin 26 DF  IND Salam Singh 29 GK  IND Arindam Bhattacharya (5th captain[lower-alpha 1]) 30 MF  IND Ningomba Engson Singh 31 GK  IND Arsh Anwer Shaikh 33 DF  IND Prabir Das 44 DF  ESP Tiri 79 DF  IND Subhasish Bose 90 MF  BRA Marcelinho Leite Pereira (on loan from Odisha FC) — MF  IND Lenny Rodrigues

[35]

As of 3 December 2020[36]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 22 FW  IND Jobby Justin (Inj) 23 MF  IND Michael Soosairaj (Inj) — DF  ENG John Johnson — MF  IND Kiyan Nassiri

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  AUS Brad Inman (to Odisha FC till 30 June 2021) — FW  IND Md. Fardin Ali Molla (to Mohammedan SC till 30 june 2021)

As of 31 January 2021

As of 31 January 2021

Name	Nationality	From	To	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win%	Honours
Antonio López Habas	Spain	1 June 2020	Present	14	8	3	3	16	9	057.14