# 2019–20 Hyderabad FC season

The 2019–20 Hyderabad FC season was the first ever competitive season in the club's history and the inaugural season in the Indian Super League.

## Background

The Hyderabad FC replaced the FC Pune City in 2019 and will debut in the 2019–20 Indian Super League season. FC Pune City was dissolved after the 2018–19 season due to prolonged financial and technical troubles. The franchise was taken over by Vijay Madduri, a Hyderabad based entrepreneur, and Varun Tripuraneni, the former CEO of the Kerala Blasters. The owners decided to move the franchise to their home city of Hyderabad. The club was announced on 27 August 2019. The Hyderabad FC will be the first club from Hyderabad to feature in the Indian Super League.
The club officially unveiled their logo on 21 September and the home jersey for their maiden season on 29 September. The Hyderabad FC will play their home matches at G.M.C. Balayogi Athletic Stadium which has a capacity of 30,000.

## Kits

| Home | Away |

## Management team

| Role | Name |
| Head Coach | Xavier Gurri Lopez |
| Assistant Coach | Mehrajuddin Wadoo |
| Head Performance Analyst | Joy Gabriel |

## Players

| No. | Name | Position | Date of Birth | Signed Year | Previous Club |
| Goalkeepers |||||||
| 1 | Kamaljit Singh | GK | (1995-12-28)28 December 1995 (aged 23) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 33 | Laxmikant Kattimani | GK | (1989-05-03)3 May 1989 (aged 30) | 2019 | FC Goa |
| 40 | Kunzang Bhutia | GK | (1994-01-03)3 January 1994 (aged 25) | 2020 | Churchill Brothers |
| Defenders |||||||
| 3 | Sahil Panwar | DF | (1999-12-15)15 December 1999 (aged 19) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 4 | Rafa | DF | (1985-04-09)9 April 1985 (aged 34) | 2019 | Rayo Majadahonda |
| 5 | Adil Khan | DF | (1988-07-07)7 July 1988 (aged 31) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 6 | Matthew Kilgallon | DF | (1984-01-08)8 January 1984 (aged 35) | 2019 | Hamilton Academical |
| 13 | Gurtej Singh | DF | (1989-12-18)18 December 1989 (aged 29) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 25 | Dimple Bhagat | DF | (1998-12-12)12 December 1998 (aged 20) | 2019 | Gokulam Kerala |
| 36 | Souvik Chakrabarti | DF | (1991-07-12)12 July 1991 (aged 28) | 2020 | Mumbai City |
| 44 | Ashish Rai | DF | (1999-02-02)2 February 1999 (aged 20) | 2019 | Pune City |
| Midfielders |||||||
| 8 | Sahil Tavora | MF | (1995-10-19)19 October 1995 (aged 24) | 2019 | Mumbai City |
| 11 | Abhishek Halder | MF | (1999-10-05)5 October 1999 (aged 20) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 12 | Deependra Negi | MF | (1998-11-20)20 November 1998 (aged 20) | 2019 | Kerala Blasters |
| 14 | Néstor Gordillo | MF | (1989-08-22)22 August 1989 (aged 30) | 2019 | Chennai City |
| 15 | Marko Stanković | MF | (1986-02-17)17 February 1986 (aged 33) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 16 | Shankar Sampingiraj | MF | (1994-12-14)14 December 1994 (aged 24) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 19 | Rohit Kumar | MF | (1997-04-01)1 April 1997 (aged 22) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 20 | Ajay Chhetri | MF | (1999-07-01)1 July 1999 (aged 20) | 2020 | Bengaluru |
| 22 | Ghani Ahmmed Nigam | MF | (1988-05-01)1 May 1988 (aged 31) | 2019 | Gokulam Kerala |
| 26 | Hitesh Sharma | MF | (1997-12-25)25 December 1997 (aged 21) | 2020 | ATK |
| 27 | Nikhil Poojari | MF | (1995-09-03)3 September 1995 (aged 24) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 32 | Mohammad Yasir | MF | (1998-04-14)14 April 1998 (aged 21) | 2019 | Pune City |
| Forwards |||||||
| 7 | Giles Barnes | FW | (1988-08-05)5 August 1988 (aged 31) | 2019 | Colorado Rapids |
| 9 | Bobô | FW | (1985-01-09)9 January 1985 (aged 34) | 2019 | Alanyaspor |
| 10 | Marcelinho $^{(C)}$ | FW | (1987-07-05)5 July 1987 (aged 32) | 2019 | Pune City |
| 28 | Liston Colaco | FW | (1998-11-12)12 November 1998 (aged 20) | 2020 | Goa |
Last updated: 4 February 2020. Source: Indian Super League

## New contracts

| No. | Position | Player | Date | Until |
| 5 | DF | Adil Khan | 23 January 2020 | 31 May 2023 |
| 11 | DF | Abhishek Halder | 28 January 2020 | 31 May 2022 |
| 32 | MF | Mohammad Yasir | 17 February 2020 | 31 May 2023 |
| 44 | DF | Ashish Rai | 17 February 2020 | 31 May 2023 |
| 27 | MF | Nikhil Poojari | 20 April 2020 | 31 May 2023 |
| 25 | DF | Dimple Bhagat | 2 May 2020 | 31 May 2022 |
| 33 | GK | Laxmikant Kattimani | 30 May 2020 | 31 May 2021 |

## Transfers
### In

| No. | Pos. | Player | From | Date | Until | Fee |
| Winter ||||||||
| 28 | FW | Liston Colaco | Goa | 14 January 2020 | 31 May 2022 | Free transfer |
| 40 | GK | Kunzang Bhutia | Churchill Brothers | 14 January 2020 | | Free transfer |
| 36 | DF | Souvik Chakrabarti | Mumbai City | 28 January 2020 | 31 May 2023 | Free transfer |
| 26 | MF | Hitesh Sharma | ATK | 31 January 2020 | 31 May 2021 | Free transfer |

### Loan in

| No. | Pos. | Player | From | Date | Until | Fee | Source |
| Winter ||||||||
| 20 | MF | Ajay Chhetri | Bengaluru | 7 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed | |

### Loan out

| No. | Pos. | Player | To | Date | Until | Fee |
| Winter ||||||||
| 34 | DF | Tarif Akhand | Chennai City | 5 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |
| | DF | Abhash Thapa | East Bengal | 8 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |
| 21 | GK | Anuj Kumar | Indian Arrows | 14 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |
| 17 | MF | Laldanmawia Ralte | Real Kashmir | 31 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |
| 23 | FW | Robin Singh | Real Kashmir | 31 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |
| | DF | Keenan Almeida | Mumbai City | 31 January 2020 | 31 May 2020 | Undisclosed |

## Pre-season and friendlies

The Hyderabad FC played a pre-season friendly against an I-League club Real Kashmir FC on 4 October 2019. They drew the match 1–1 with Laldanmawia Ralte scoring the solitary goal for the Hyderabad. The hat-trick from Robin Singh in their next friendly guided the Hyderabad to a 4–2 win over the Velsao with Rafa scoring the fourth goal. The Hyderabad ended their pre-season tour on a winning note as Robin's brace and goal apiece from Marcelinho and Abhishek Halder helped them defeat the Minerva Punjab 4–0 in their last friendly match on 18 October.

## Competitions
### Indian Super League

Phil Brown was appointed as the head coach of the Hyderabad FC who previously managed FC Pune City. He hired Neil McDonald and Mehrajuddin Wadoo as his assistant coaches and Aidan Davison as the goalkeeping coach.
The Hyderabad FC announced their squad on 8 October for their first competitive season. Despite being named in the squad, Néstor Gordillo will not be available until late December owing to the ban handed to him by All India Football Federation (AIFF).
The Hyderabad FC made their debut in the Indian Super League against the ATK in an away match at Kolkata on 25 October. The Hyderabad registered their heaviest defeat of the debut season in their first ever competitive match with a 5-0 loss against the ATK.
On 2 November, the Hyderabad came from behind to register a 2-1 win against the Kerala Blasters. This was their first ever competitive win in their third match of this season.
On 11 January, after loss against the Chennaiyin and after losing nine out of twelve league games, manager Phil Brown was sacked by Hyderabad. The current assistant coach, Wadoo, took charge as interim head coach. Former Bengaluru coach Albert Roca was appointed Hyderabad new head coach on two season deal starting from 2020–21 season while taking up the advisory role to the new coaching staff for the remainder of the season. On 23 January, Roca appointed Xavier Gurri Lopez as the interim coach until the end of the season.
On 20 February, the Hyderabad finished the league stage with a 5-1 win against the NorthEast United which also snapped their 14-match win-less streak and recorded their first away win in any competition. They ended their campaign with a last place finish as they registered two wins and four draws in 18 matches in their debut season and were eventually not qualified for the playoff stage.

#### League table

| Pos | Teamvte | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
| 6 | Odisha | 18 | 7 | 4 | 7 | 28 | 31 | −3 | 25 |
| 7 | Kerala Blasters | 18 | 4 | 7 | 7 | 29 | 32 | −3 | 19 |
| 8 | Jamshedpur | 18 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 22 | 35 | −13 | 18 |
| 9 | NorthEast United | 18 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 16 | 30 | −14 | 14 |
| 10 | Hyderabad | 18 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 21 | 39 | −18 | 10 |
* ^ Note 1: Originally, Mohun Bagan, the 2019–20 I-League champions (they were already assured of the title before the league was abandoned due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India), would qualify as India 2 (2021 AFC Cup group stage), and ATK, the 2019–20 Indian Super League playoffs winners, would qualify as India 3 (2021 AFC Cup qualifying play-offs). However, ATK owners KGSPL ceased their football operation and bought majority stakes in Mohun Bagan FC (India) Private Limited and rebranded Mohun Bagan football team as ATK Mohun Bagan FC from the 2020–21 Indian Super League season which qualified as India 2 in 2021 AFC club competition. The All India Football Federation decided that Bengaluru FC, the 2019–20 Indian Super League regular season 3rd place (behind FC Goa, which qualified for the 2021 AFC Champions League, and ATK), will qualify as India 3.

#### Results by matchday

| Matchday | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 |
| Ground | A | A | H | H | A | H | H | A | H | A | A | H | H | H | A | A | H | A |
| Result | L | L | W | L | L | D | L | L | D | L | L | L | L | D | L | L | D | W |
| Position | 10 | 10 | 9 | 9 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 10 |

#### Fixtures
##### League stage
## Player statistics
### Appearances and goals

| No. | Pos. | Player | ISL | ISL |
| No. | Pos. | Player | Apps | Goals |
| 1 | GK | Kamaljit Singh | 12 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | Sahil Panwar | 9 (3) | 0 |
| 4 | DF | Rafa | 6 | 0 |
| 5 | DF | Adil Khan | 14 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | Matthew Kilgallon | 17 | 1 |
| 7 | FW | Giles Barnes | 5 (7) | 0 |
| 8 | MF | Sahil Tavora | 1 (1) | 0 |
| 9 | FW | Bobô | 13 | 5 |
| 10 | FW | Marcelinho | 17 | 7 |
| 11 | MF | Abhishek Halder | 3 (5) | 0 |
| 12 | MF | Deependra Negi | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | DF | Gurtej Singh | 11 (2) | 0 |
| 14 | MF | Néstor Gordillo | 7 (2) | 1 |
| 15 | MF | Marko Stanković | 13 (2) | 2 |
| 16 | MF | Shankar Sampingiraj | 3 (2) | 0 |
| 19 | MF | Rohit Kumar | 8 (1) | 1 |
| 20 | MF | Ajay Chhetri | 0 (2) | 0 |
| 22 | MF | Ghani Ahmmed Nigam | 1 (4) | 0 |
| 25 | DF | Dimple Bhagat | 1 (1) | 0 |
| 26 | MF | Hitesh Sharma | 0 | 0 |
| 27 | MF | Nikhil Poojari | 18 | 0 |
| 28 | FW | Liston Colaco | 2 (2) | 2 |
| 32 | MF | Mohammad Yasir | 10 (5) | 1 |
| 33 | GK | Laxmikant Kattimani | 6 | 0 |
| 36 | DF | Souvik Chakrabarti | 2 (1) | 0 |
| 40 | GK | Kunzang Bhutia | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | DF | Ashish Rai | 11 (3) | 0 |
| Players have left the club |||||
| 17 | MF | Laldanmawia Ralte | 3 (2) | 0 |
| 21 | GK | Anuj Kumar | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | FW | Robin Singh | 5 (4) | 1 |
| 34 | DF | Tarif Akhand | 0 (1) | 0 |
| | DF | Keenan Almeida | 0 | 0 |
| | DF | Abhash Thapa | 0 | 0 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

### Top scorers

| Rank | No. | Pos | Player | ISL |
| 1 | 10 | FW | Marcelinho | 7 |
| 2 | 9 | FW | Bobô | 5 |
| 3 | 15 | MF | Marko Stanković | 2 |
| 3 | 28 | FW | Liston Colaco | 2 |
| 5 | 6 | DF | Matthew Kilgallon | 1 |
| 5 | 14 | MF | Néstor Gordillo | 1 |
| 5 | 19 | MF | Rohit Kumar | 1 |
| 5 | 23 | FW | Robin Singh | 1 |
| 5 | 32 | MF | Mohammad Yasir | 1 |
| Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | Own goals | 0 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 21 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

### Top assists

| Rank | No. | Pos | Player | ISL |
| 1 | 10 | FW | Marcelinho | 2 |
| 2 | 11 | MF | Abhishek Halder | 1 |
| 2 | 13 | MF | Gurtej Singh | 1 |
| 2 | 14 | MF | Néstor Gordillo | 1 |
| 2 | 15 | MF | Marko Stanković | 1 |
| 2 | 19 | MF | Rohit Kumar | 1 |
| 2 | 44 | DF | Ashish Rai | 1 |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 8 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

### Clean sheets

| Rank | No. | Pos | Player | ISL |
| Total | Total | Total | Total | 0 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

### Discipline

| No. | Pos | Player | ISL | ISL | ISL |
| 1 | GK | Kamaljit Singh | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | DF | Sahil Panwar | 3 | 0 | 1 |
| 5 | DF | Adil Khan | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | DF | Matthew Kilgallon | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | FW | Giles Barnes | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | FW | Bobô | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | FW | Marcelinho | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | MF | Abhishek Halder | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 13 | DF | Gurtej Singh | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 15 | MF | Marko Stanković | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 16 | MF | Shankar Sampingiraj | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 23 | FW | Robin Singh | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 25 | DF | Dimple Bhagat | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| 27 | MF | Nikhil Poojari | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 32 | MF | Mohammad Yasir | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 36 | DF | Souvik Chakrabarti | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 44 | DF | Ashish Rai | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| TOTALS | TOTALS | TOTALS | 42 | 1 | 1 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

### Summary

| Competition | P | W | D | L | GF | GA | CS | | | |
| Indian Super League | 18 | 2 | 4 | 12 | 21 | 39 | 0 | 42 | 1 | 1 |
Last updated: 20 February 2020. Source: Competitions

## Awards

| No. | Pos. | Player | Award | Source |
| 10 | FW | Marcelinho | ISL Fans' Goal of the Week (Week 3) | |