2020–21 Indian Super League

The 2020–21 Indian Super League season was the seventh season of the Indian Super League (ISL) since its formation and the 25th season of the top division of the Indian football league system. The season started on 20 November 2020 and ended on 13 March 2021. It was hosted behind closed doors across three venues in Goa due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

Indian Super League

League announcement poster
Season	2020–21
Dates	20 November 2020 – 13 March 2021
Champions	Mumbai City 1st ISL Shield title
ISL Cup Winners	Mumbai City 1st ISL Cup title
AFC Champions League	Mumbai City
AFC Cup	Mohun Bagan
Matches played	115
Goals scored	298 (2.59 per match)
Top goalscorer	Igor Angulo Roy Krishna (14 goals each)
Best goalkeeper	Arindam Bhattacharya (108.95 mins per goal)
Biggest home win	Hyderabad 4–0 Kerala Blasters (16 February 2021)
Biggest away win	Odisha 1–6 Mumbai City (24 February 2021)
Highest scoring	Odisha 6–5 East Bengal (27 February 2021)
Longest winning run	Mohun Bagan (5 games)
Longest unbeaten run	Goa (15 games)
Longest winless run	Odisha (10 games)
Longest losing run	Bengaluru, Odisha (4 games)
← 2019–20 2021–22 →

Mumbai City won the cup, having defeated Mohun Bagan in the final, and also won the League Winners Shield. Thus, Mumbai City became the first club to win the ISL Cup title and the League Winners Shield in a single season.^[1]

Changes from last season

• Each club had the option of signing a minimum of five and a maximum of seven foreign players. Still, unlike the previous season, there should be at least one overseas player who hails from an AFC–affiliated country.
• The maximum squad size was increased as the clubs were allowed to register up to 35 players in their squad.^[2]
• The number of substitutions allowed, was increased from 3 players to 5 players.^[3]
• Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, all matches during the 2020–21 season was played behind closed doors across three venues in Goa.^[4] The venues were the Fatorda Stadium in Margao, the GMC Athletic Stadium in Bambolim, and the Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco da Gama.^[5] The host venues for each team were revealed on 18 August 2020.^[6]
• In June–July 2020; KGSPL, the owners of ATK, officially disbanded their football team and bought a majority stake in Mohun Bagan FC (India) Private Limited and rebranded Mohun Bagan football section as ATK Mohun Bagan which took the spot of ATK
• On 27 September 2020, East Bengal joined the league as an expansion team and thus became the 11th team.^[7]
• Since, all the matches were played in neutral venues, there was no away goal rule applied in the playoffs of this season.^[8]

Teams

Stadiums and locations

Bengaluru

Chennaiyin

Goa

Jamshedpur

Mumbai City

Hyderabad

NorthEast
United

Odisha

Kerala Blasters

Kolkata

Kolkata teams
ATK Mohun Bagan
East Bengal

Locations of the Indian Super League teams

Team	Location	Host venue	Capacity
ATK Mohun Bagan	Kolkata, West Bengal	Fatorda Stadium[6]	18,600
Bengaluru	Bangalore, Karnataka
Goa	Margao, Goa
Chennaiyin	Chennai, Tamil Nadu	GMC Athletic Stadium[6]	3,000
Kerala Blasters	Kochi, Kerala
Mumbai City	Mumbai, Maharashtra
Odisha	Bhubaneswar, Odisha
East Bengal	Kolkata, West Bengal	Tilak Maidan Stadium[6][9]	5,000
Hyderabad	Hyderabad, Telangana
Jamshedpur	Jamshedpur, Jharkhand
NorthEast United	Guwahati, Assam

Tilak Maidan Stadium

Fatorda Stadium

GMC Athletic Stadium

Locations of the stadiums in Goa

Personnel and sponsorship

Team	Head coach	Captain(s)	Kit manufacturer	Main sponsor
ATK Mohun Bagan	Antonio López Habas[10]	Pritam Kotal Roy Krishna Sandesh Jhingan Arindam Bhattacharya Edu Garcia[a][11]	Nivia[12][13]	SBOTOP[14]
Bengaluru	Naushad Moosa (interim head coach)[15]	Sunil Chhetri[16]	Puma[17]	JSW[18]
Chennaiyin	Csaba László[19]	Rafael Crivellaro[20]	Performax	Apollo Tyres[21]
East Bengal	Robbie Fowler[22]	Danny Fox[23]	TYKA[24]	Shree Cement[25]
Goa	Juan Ferrando[26]	Edu Bedia[27]	SIX5SIX[28]	Indinews[29]
Hyderabad	Manuel Roca[30]	Aridane Santana	T10 Sports	Andslite
Jamshedpur	Owen Coyle[31]	Peter Hartley[32]	Nivia[33]	Tata Steel[34]
Kerala Blasters	Ishfaq Ahmed (interim head coach)	Costa Nhamoinesu Jessel Carneiro[35]	Reyaur Sports[36]	BYJU'S[37]
Mumbai City	Sergio Lobera[38]	Amrinder Singh[39]	Puma[40]	DafaNews[41]
NorthEast United	Khalid Jamil (Interim head coach)[42]	Benjamin Lambot Lalengmawia Federico Gallego Subhasish Roy Chowdhury	Performax	JA Entertainment[43]
Odisha	Gerry Peyton (Interim head coach)	Steven Taylor	T10 Sports[44]	Odisha Tourism[45]

1. Coach Habas announced five players will be given the captain's armband in rotation.

Managerial changes

Team	Outgoing manager	Manner of departure	Date of vacancy	Ref.	Position in table	Incoming manager	Date of appointment	Ref.
Kerala Blasters	Eelco Schattorie	Sacked	22 April 2020	[46]	Pre-season	Kibu Vicuña	23 April 2020	[47]
Goa	Clifford Miranda	End of interim period	30 April 2020	[48]		Juan Ferrando	30 April 2020	[26]
Hyderabad	Xavier Gurri López		1 June 2020	[49]		Albert Roca	1 June 2020	[50]
Odisha	Josep Gombau	Mutual consent	18 March 2020	[51]		Stuart Baxter	19 June 2020	[52]
Jamshedpur	Antonio Iriondo	End of contract	31 May 2020	[53]		Owen Coyle	7 August 2020	[31]
NorthEast United	Khalid Jamil	End of the interim period	25 August 2020	[54]		Gerard Nus	25 August 2020	[42]
Chennaiyin	Owen Coyle	End of contract	14 March 2020	[55]		Csaba László	30 August 2020	[19]
Hyderabad	Albert Roca	Mutual consent	29 August 2020	[50]		Manuel Roca	31 August 2020	[30]
Mumbai City	Jorge Costa	End of contract	5 March 2020	[56]		Sergio Lobera	12 October 2020	[38]
Bengaluru	Carles Cuadrat	Mutual consent	6 January 2021	[57]	5th	Naushad Moosa	6 January 2021	[57]
NorthEast United	Gerard Nus	Sacked	12 January 2021	[58]	7th	Khalid Jamil	12 January 2021	[58]
Odisha	Stuart Baxter	Sacked	2 February 2021	[59]	11th	Gerry Peyton	3 February 2021	[60]
Kerala Blasters	Kibu Vicuna	Sacked	17 February 2021	[61]	9th	Ishfaq Ahmed	17 February 2021	[62]

Roster changes

Main article: List of 2020–21 Indian Super League transfers

Foreign players

Bold letters suggest the player was signed in the winter transfer window.

Club	Player 1	Player 2	Player 3	Player 4	Player 5	Player 6	AFC Player	Former Player
ATK Mohun Bagan	Marcelinho	Roy Krishna	Carl McHugh	Edu García	Javi Hernández	Tiri	David Williams	Brad Inman
Bengaluru	Cleiton Silva	Kristian Opseth	Dimas Delgado	Fran González	Juanan	Xisco Hernández	Erik Paartalu	Deshorn Brown
Chennaiyin	Enes Sipović	Eli Sabiá	Memo	Esmaël Gonçalves	Jakub Sylvestr	Manuel Lanzarote	Fatkhullo Fatkhuloev	Rafael Crivellaro
East Bengal	Jacques Maghoma	Matti Steinmann	Bright Enobakhare	Anthony Pilkington	Danny Fox	Aaron Holloway	Scott Neville
Goa	Alberto Noguera	Edu Bedia	Igor Angulo	Iván González	Jorge Ortiz		James Donachie
Hyderabad	João Victor	Aridane Santana	Fran Sandaza	Lluís Sastre	Odei Onaindia	Roland Alberg	Joel Chianese
Jamshedpur	Alex Monteiro	Peter Hartley	Nerijus Valskis	Stephen Eze	Aitor Monroy	David Grande	Nick Fitzgerald
Kerala Blasters	Facundo Pereyra	Bakary Koné	Gary Hooper	Juande	Vicente Gómez	Costa Nhamoinesu	Jordan Murray	Sergio Cidoncha
Mumbai City	Adam Le Fondre	Hugo Boumous	Ahmed Jahouh	Bartholomew Ogbeche	Mourtada Fall	Hernán Santana	Cy Goddard
NorthEast United	Benjamin Lambot	Idrissa Sylla	Deshorn Brown	Khassa Camara	Luís Machado	Federico Gallego	Dylan Fox	Kwesi Appiah
Odisha	Brad Inman	Diego Maurício	Steven Taylor	Cole Alexander	Manuel Onwu	Diawandou Diagne	Jacob Tratt	Marcelinho

Regular season

League table

Pos	Team	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD	Pts	Qualification
1	Mumbai City (L, C)	20	12	4	4	35	18	+17	40	Qualification to ISL playoffs and 2022 AFC Champions League group stage
2	ATK Mohun Bagan[a]	20	12	4	4	28	15	+13	40	Qualification to ISL playoffs and 2022 AFC Cup play-off round
3	NorthEast United	20	8	9	3	31	25	+6	33	Qualification to ISL playoffs
4	Goa	20	7	10	3	31	23	+8	31
5	Hyderabad	20	6	11	3	27	19	+8	29
6	Jamshedpur	20	7	6	7	21	22	−1	27
7	Bengaluru	20	5	7	8	26	28	−2	22
8	Chennaiyin	20	3	11	6	17	23	−6	20
9	East Bengal	20	3	8	9	22	33	−11	17
10	Kerala Blasters	20	3	8	9	23	36	−13	17
11	Odisha	20	2	6	12	25	44	−19	12

Source: Indian Super League
Rules for classification: 1) points; 2) head-to-head points; 3) head-to-head goal difference; 4) head-to-head goals scored; 5) goal difference; 6) number of goals scored; 7) fair play ranking; 8) drawing of lots
(C) ISL Cup winners; (L) League Winners' Shield Winners
Notes:

1. As the Premiers Mumbai City won the ISL playoffs, the regular season runners-up qualified for 2022 AFC Cup play-off round.

Results

Home \ Away	AMB	BEN	CHE	EAB	GOA	HYD	JAM	KER	MCI	NEU	OFC
ATK Mohun Bagan	—	1–0	1–0	3–1	1–0	1–1	1–0	3–2	0–1	2–0	1–0
Bengaluru	0–2	—	0–0	0–1	1–2	0–0	0–1	4–2	1–3	2–2	1–1
Chennaiyin	0–0	0–1	—	0–0	2–2	1–4	0–1	0–0	1–1	3–3	0–0
East Bengal	0–2	0–2	2–2	—	1–1	1–1	0–0	1–1	0–1	1–2	3–1
Goa	1–1	2–2	1–2	1–1	—	0–0	3–0	3–1	0–1	1–1	3–1
Hyderabad	2–2	2–2	2–0	3–2	1–2	—	1–1	4–0	0–2	0–0	1–1
Jamshedpur	2–1	3–2	1–2	1–2	1–2	0–0	—	2–3	2–0	1–2	2–2
Kerala Blasters	0–1	2–1	1–1	1–1	1–1	2–0	0–0	—	1–2	2–2	2–4
Mumbai City	2–0	2–4	2–1	3–0	3–3	1–1	1–1	2–0	—	1–2	2–0
NorthEast United	2–1	1–1	0–0	2–0	2–2	2–4	0–1	2–0	1–0	—	3–1
Odisha	1–4	1–2	1–2	6–5	0–1	0–1	0–1	2–2	1–6	2–2	—

Source: Indian Super League
Legend: Blue = home team win; Yellow = draw; Red = away team win.

Playoffs

Main article: 2021 Indian Super League playoffs

Bracket

	Semi-finals							Final
	1	Mumbai City (p)	2	0	2 (6)
	4	Goa	2	0	2 (5)
								1	Mumbai City	2
								2	ATK Mohun Bagan	1
	2	ATK Mohun Bagan	1	2	3
	3	NorthEast United	1	1	2

Semi-finals

Team 1	Agg.Tooltip Aggregate score	Team 2	1st leg	2nd leg
Mumbai City	2–2 (6–5 p)	Goa	2–2	0–0 (a.e.t.)
ATK Mohun Bagan	3–2	NorthEast United	1–1	2–1

Final

Main article: 2021 Indian Super League final

13 March 2021

19:30 IST

Mumbai City	2–1	ATK Mohun Bagan
Tiri 29' (o.g.) B. Singh 90'	Report	Williams 18'

Fatorda Stadium, Margao

Attendance: 0

Referee: Tejas Nagvenkar (India)

Season statistics

Scoring

Top scorers

Roy Krishna scored 14 goals in 2020–21 ISL season, joint highest goal scorer of the season.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Igor Angulo	Goa	14
	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
3	Adam Le Fondre	Mumbai City	11
4	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad	10
5	Bartholomew Ogbeche	Mumbai City	8
	Nerijus Valskis	Jamshedpur
	Sunil Chhetri	Bengaluru
8	Jordan Murray	Kerala Blasters	7
	Diego Mauricio	Odisha
	Luís Machado	NorthEast United
Source:[63]

Top Indian scorers

Sunil Chhetri scored 8 goals, highest Indian goalscorer of this season.

Rank	Player	Club	Goals
1	Sunil Chhetri	Bengaluru	8
2	Manvir Singh	ATK Mohun Bagan	6
	Bipin Singh	Mumbai City
4	Ishan Pandita	Goa	4
	Halicharan Narzary	Hyderabad
	Lallianzuala Chhangte	Chennaiyin
7	Rahul KP	Kerala Blasters	3
	V.P. Suhair	NorthEast United
9	Paul Ramfangzauva	Odisha	2
	Anirudh Thapa	Chennaiyin
	Liston Colaco	Hyderabad
	Rahim Ali	Chennaiyin
	Jerry Mawihmingthanga	Odisha
	Rowllin Borges	Mumbai City
Source:[63]

Hat-tricks

Main article: List of Indian Super League hat-tricks

Result column shows goal tally of player's team first.

Player	For	Against	Result	Date	Ref
Bipin Singh	Mumbai City	Odisha	6–1 (A)	24 February 2021	[64]

Notes

(H) – Home team
(A) – Away team

Assists

Rank	Player	Club	Assists
1	Alberto Noguera	Goa	8
	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
3	Hugo Boumous	Mumbai City	7
4	Federico Gallego	NorthEast United	6
	Aitor Monroy	Jamshedpur
6	Jerry Mawihmingthanga	Odisha	5
	Ahmed Jahouh	Mumbai City
8	Gary Hooper	Kerala Blasters	4
	Alexander Jesuraj	Goa
	Cleiton Silva	Bengaluru
	Bipin Singh	Mumbai City
Source:[65]

Clean sheets

Rank	Player	Club	Clean sheets
1	Amrinder Singh	Mumbai City	10
	Arindam Bhattacharya	ATK Mohun Bagan
3	Rehenesh TP	Jamshedpur	8
4	Laxmikant Kattimani	Hyderabad	6
	Vishal Kaith	Chennaiyin
6	Gurpreet Singh	Bengaluru	4
7	Subhasish Roy	NorthEast United	3
	Albino Gomes	Kerala Blasters
9	Gurmeet Singh	NorthEast United	2
	Dheeraj Singh	Goa
	Subrata Pal	East Bengal
	Debjit Majumder	East Bengal
Source:[66]

Discipline

Player

• Most yellow cards: 8^[67]
  • Pronay Halder (ATK Mohun Bagan)
  • Erik Paartalu (Bengaluru)
• Most red cards: 2^[68]
  • Ahmed Jahouh (Mumbai City)

Club

• Most yellow cards: 61^[69]
  • Mumbai City
• Most red cards: 4^[70]
  • East Bengal
  • Jamshedpur
  • Goa

Awards

Hero of the Match

Match	Hero of the Match		Match	Hero of the Match		Match	Hero of the Match
	Player	Club		Player	Club		Player	Club
Match 1	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 40	Jeakson Singh	Kerala Blasters	Match 78	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 2	Khassa Camara	NorthEast United	Match 41	Rehenesh TP	Jamshedpur	Match 79	Seiminlen Doungel	Jamshedpur
Match 3	Igor Angulo	Goa	Match 42	Arindam Bhattacharya	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 80	Sunil Chhetri	Bengaluru
Match 4	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad	Match 43	Igor Angulo	Goa	Match 81	Amrinder Singh	Mumbai City
Match 5	Anirudh Thapa	Chennaiyin	Match 44	Amrinder Singh	Mumbai City	Match 82	Federico Gallego	NorthEast United
Match 6	Adam Le Fondre	Mumbai City	Match 45	Anthony Pilkington	East Bengal	Match 83	Gurpreet Singh	Bengaluru
Match 7	Dylan Fox	NorthEast United	Match 46	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 84	Manvir Singh	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 8	Carl McHugh	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 47	Halicharan Narzary	Hyderabad	Match 85	Matti Steinmann	East Bengal
Match 9	Chinglensana Singh	Hyderabad	Match 48	Bipin Singh	Mumbai City	Match 86	Lalengmawia	NorthEast United
Match 10	Diego Maurício	Odisha	Match 49	Bright Enobakhare	East Bengal	Match 87	Rowllin Borges	Mumbai City
Match 11	Albino Gomes	Kerala Blasters	Match 50	Diego Maurício	Odisha	Match 88	Marcelinho Leite Pereira	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 12	Lalengmawia	NorthEast United	Match 51	Joel Chianese	Hyderabad	Match 89	Stephen Eze	Jamshedpur
Match 13	Hugo Boumous	Mumbai City	Match 52	Debjit Majumder	East Bengal	Match 90	Diego Mauricio	Odisha
Match 14	Mohammad Yasir	Hyderabad	Match 53	Lallianzuala Chhangte	Chennaiyin	Match 91	Akash Mishra	Hyderabad
Match 15	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 54	Jordan Murray	Kerala Blasters	Match 92	Ishan Pandita	Goa
Match 16	Suresh Singh Wangjam	Bengaluru	Match 55	Bartholomew Ogbeche	Mumbai City	Match 93	Federico Gallego	NorthEast United
Match 17	Benjamin Lambot	NorthEast United	Match 56	Lalengmawia	NorthEast United	Match 94	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 18	Rowllin Borges	Mumbai City	Match 57	Anirudh Thapa	Chennaiyin	Match 95	Sunil Chhetri	Bengaluru
Match 19	Lenny Rodrigues	Goa	Match 58	Naveen Kumar	Goa	Match 96	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad
Match 20	Nerijus Valskis	Jamshedpur	Match 59	Sahal	Kerala Blasters	Match 97	Iván González	Goa
Match 21	Luís Machado	NorthEast United	Match 60	Hitesh Sharma	Hyderabad	Match 98	Lallianzuala Chhangte	Chennaiyin
Match 22	Mourtada Fall	Mumbai City	Match 61	Federico Gallego	NorthEast United	Match 99	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 23	Mohammed Irshad	East Bengal	Match 62	Saviour Gama	Goa	Match 100	Farukh Choudhary	Jamshedpur
Match 24	Liston Colaco	Hyderabad	Match 63	Debjit Majumder	East Bengal	Match 101	Glan Martins	Goa
Match 25	Jorge Ortiz	Goa	Match 64	Cole Alexander	Odisha	Match 102	Lallianzuala Chhangte	Chennaiyin
Match 26	Khassa Camara	NorthEast United	Match 65	Rahul K P	Kerala Blasters	Match 103	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad
Match 27	Dimas Delgado	Bengaluru	Match 66	David Williams	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 104	V.P. Suhair	NorthEast United
Match 28	Peter Hartley	Jamshedpur	Match 67	Mourtada Fall	Mumbai City	Match 105	Bipin Singh	Mumbai City
Match 29	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad	Match 68	Sandeep Singh	Kerala Blasters	Match 106	Aitor Monroy	Jamshedpur
Match 30	Carl McHugh	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 69	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad	Match 107	Lalengmawia	NorthEast United
Match 31	Cleiton Silva	Bengaluru	Match 70	Cleiton Silva	Bengaluru	Match 108	Paul Ramfangzauva	Odisha
Match 32	Peter Hartley	Jamshedpur	Match 71	Amey Ranawade	Mumbai City	Match 109	Adil Khan	Goa
Match 33	Rafael Crivellaro	Chennaiyin	Match 72	Federico Gallego	NorthEast United	Match 110	Mourtada Fall	Mumbai City
Match 34	Ahmed Jahouh	Mumbai City	Match 73	Sahal	Kerala Blasters	Match 111 (SF)	Jorge Ortiz	Goa
Match 35	Anthony Pilkington	East Bengal	Match 74	Aridane Santana	Hyderabad	Match 112 (SF)	Gurjinder Kumar	NorthEast United
Match 36	David Williams	ATK Mohun Bagan	Match 75	Bright Enobakhare	East Bengal	Match 113 (SF)	Iván González	Goa
Match 37	Cole Alexander	Odisha	Match 76	Deshorn Brown	NorthEast United	Match 114 (SF)	Manvir Singh	ATK Mohun Bagan
Match 38	Jorge Ortiz	Goa	Match 77	Asish Rai	Hyderabad	Match 115 (F)	Bipin Singh	Mumbai City
Match 39	Matti Steinmann	East Bengal		Source:[71]

Season awards

Award	Winner	Club
Hero of the League	Roy Krishna	ATK Mohun Bagan
Golden Boot	Igor Angulo	Goa
Golden Glove	Arindam Bhattacharya	ATK Mohun Bagan
Winning Pass of the League	Alberto Noguera	Goa
Emerging Player of the League	Lalengmawia	NorthEast United

See also

• 2020−21 I-League
• 2020–21 in Indian football

Notes