Mohun Bagan Super Giant

This article is about the association football club. For the parent club, see Mohun Bagan AC.

Mohun Bagan SG
Full nameMohun Bagan Super Giant
Nickname(s)The Mariners;
The Green & Maroons
Short nameMBSG
Founded15 August 1889; 135 years ago (1889-08-15) (as Mohun Bagan Sporting Club)[1]
Ground
Capacity
  • 85,000
  • 22,000
OwnerRPSG Mohun Bagan Pvt. Ltd.:
ChairmanSanjiv Goenka
Head coachJosé Francisco Molina
LeagueIndian Super League
2023–24Indian Super League, 1st of 12 (champions)
Playoffs: Runners-up
Current season

Mohun Bagan Super Giant, commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of Indian football league system. The club is most notable for its victory over the East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA Shield final. This victory made Mohun Bagan the first all-Indian club to win a championship over a British club and was a major moment during India's push for independence.[2]

The club is commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan and had several sponsored names. In 2020, KGSPL, the company that owned ATK, took an 80% stake in the football division of Mohun Bagan alongside dissolving its own club.[3] This disbanded club was absorbed into the football division of Mohun Bagan and Mohun Bagan was rebranded as ATK Mohun Bagan FC.[3] In 2023, the team was rebranded as Mohun Bagan Super Giant after continuous protest from the fans and i.e., how the term ATK was removed from the club's name and from that the historic club is again playing with its own name of Mohun Bagan.[4]

Till now the club has won the top-flight football league a record six times — Indian Super League once, I-League twice and National Football League thrice.[5] They are one of the most successful Indian clubs in the history of the Federation Cup, having won the championship a record 14 times.[6] The club had also won several other trophies, including the ISL playoffs (1 time), the Durand Cup (17 times), the IFA Shield (22 times), the Rovers Cup (14 times) and the Calcutta Football League (30 times).[7][8][9]

The club annually contests in Asia's oldest rivalry, the Kolkata Derby against its long-time local rival East Bengal,[10] with the first derby match being played on 8 August 1921.[11] Mohun Bagan was one of the founding members of National Football League in 1996 and has never been relegated from the top-tier league of the country. In its 130th year of existence, the club was inducted into the "Club of Pioneers", a network of the oldest existing football clubs around the world, on 29 July 2019.[12]

  1. ^ "History in Timeline of Indian Football". the-aiff.com. All India Football Federation. Archived from the original on 8 March 2020. Retrieved 15 February 2021.
  2. ^ "MOHUN BAGAN AND THE FIGHT FOR INDIAN INDEPENDENCE". 22 March 2015. Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  3. ^ a b "IFA Clarification ATK Disaffiliated, Mohun Bagan To Play With New Brand Name | The Fan Garage (TFG)". thefangarage.com. 20 July 2020. Retrieved 9 March 2024.
  4. ^ "ISL Club ATK Mohun Bagan To Be Renamed Back To Mohun Bagan- Report". Archived from the original on 7 November 2023. Retrieved 7 November 2023.
  5. ^ Fujioka, Atsushi; Chaudhuri, Arunava (22 March 2023). "India – List of National Champions". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  6. ^ "From the History Book, Roll of Honour". All India Football Federation. 10 January 2015. Archived from the original on 19 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  7. ^ Shetty, Chittu (11 August 2019). "Why This Would Be the Right Time to Bring Back 'Rovers Cup'". Football Counter. Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  8. ^ Kapadia, Novy (7 June 2015). "Mohun Bagan: Blaze of Glory". The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 22 February 2016. Retrieved 4 March 2016.
  9. ^ Nag, Utathya (19 April 2023). "Calcutta Football League: East Bengal Kings of Asia's Oldest League Competition – full winners list". Olympics.com. International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 5 May 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  10. ^ Choudhury, Angikaar (8 September 2015). "The East Bengal-Mohun Bagan Derby: The Rivalry That Divides Kolkata". Scroll. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 17 June 2021.
  11. ^ Sharma, Amitabha Das (1 April 2016). "The Kolkata Derby: They Met as Early as 1921!". Sportstar. Archived from the original on 16 April 2023. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
  12. ^ "How will Mohun Bagan benefit from their inclusion in the Club of Pioneers?". Khel Now. 17 May 2019. Archived from the original on 29 October 2021. Retrieved 2 January 2021.