Kerala Blasters FC

Kerala Blasters Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Kocho, Kerala. The club was established in May 2014 during the inaugural season of the Indian Super League. The name Blasters was based on the nickname of Sachin Tendulkar, who was known as Master Blaster during his playing days. They are the two time runners up of the Indian Super League; first in 2014, where they lost 1–0 to ATK in the final after an injury time goal from them and in 2016, when they were again defeated 4–3 by ATK, this time through penalties in the final. The team plays home games at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

About Kerala Blasters FC in brief

Summary Kerala Blasters FCKerala Blasters Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala. The club was established in May 2014 during the inaugural season of the Indian Super League. They are the two time runners up of the Indian Super League; first in 2014, where they lost 1–0 to ATK in the final after an injury time goal from them and in 2016, when they were again defeated 4–3 by ATK, this time through penalties in the final. The name Blasters was based on the nickname of Sachin Tendulkar, who was known as Master Blaster during his playing days. In most of the seasons since the club’s founding, Kerala Blasters have held the record for the highest league attendance, regularly attracting audiences of over 40,000 per game. The Blasters are one of the most widely supported clubs in Asia. The team plays home games at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Kocho, Kerala, and the club was founded by former India national cricket team captain Sachin Tendulkar and entrepreneur Prasad V Potluri in May 2014. In early 2014 the All India Football Federation—the governing body of association football in India, announced they would accept bids for the ownership of eight franchises from selected cities. On 13 April 2014, it was announced the rights to the Kochi franchise had been won by Sachin tendulkars and entrepreneur Prasad Potluri. On 21 August 2014, the club participated in the international draft; the management selected seven foreign players for the team.

The management also selected Avinabo Bag, Sandip Nandy, Chinadorai Sabeeth, Luis Barreto, Milagres Gonsalves, Ramandeep Singh, Renedy Singh, Sandesh Jhingan, Ishfaq Ahmed, Gurwinder Singh, Nirmal Chettri, Sushanth Mathew, and Godwin Franco for their inaugural season. As a mandatory rule, ISL clubs had to sign one internationally reputed player as a marquee signing. Former England international goalkeeper David James was chosen as the first head coach and marquee player of the team on 13 August 2014. Kerala Blaster played their first game on 13 October 2014 against NorthEast United at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium; they lost the game 1-0 after Koke scored in the 45th minute. After playing their first five matches away from home, the Blasters hosted their first home match on 6 November 2014 against Goa. After finishing the regular season in fourth place, they qualified for the playoff semi-finals on 9 December 2014 with a 1– 0 victory over Pune City. Despite not being considered the favourite to win the two-legged tie, they won the first leg 3–0 at home against Chennaiyin. In the final, however, Stephen Pearson scored the decisive goal in the 117th minute to enter the final 4-3 on penalties.