Jamshedpur FC
Jamshedpur Football Club (, ) is an Indian professional football club based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian Football. Founded in 2017, the club debuted in Indian Super League during the 2017–18 season. The club is owned and managed by Tata Steel. The club was established on 12 June 2017, when Tata Steel won the bidding rights for one of the two expansion slots in the Indian Super League. They won the ISL League Winners' Shield during 2021–22 season. History. Formation. On 11 May 2017, Indian Super League organisers invited bids  for new teams (Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Cuttack, Durgapur, Hyderabad, Jamshedpur, Kolkata, Ranchi, and Siliguri) in order to expand the league in the upcoming season. The bidding ended on 25 May 2017 and the external validator, appointed by the league, started scrutinizing the bids. Two weeks later, on 12 June, it was officially announced that Bengaluru FC and Tata Steel had won the bids for the new teams Bengaluru and Jamshedpur respectively. After winning the bid, Tata announced on 14 July 2017 that the inaugural head coach for the Jamshedpur franchise would be Steve Coppell, who led the Kerala Blasters to the  final in the previous ISL season. The team's official name, Jamshedpur FC, and logo were revealed nine days later, on 23 July, before the 2017–18 ISL Players Draft. Being a brand new club, Jamshedpur FC had the very first pick during the players draft. India international Anas Edathodika was the club's first draft pick, thus the first player in Jamshedpur's history. Inaugural season. Jamshedpur began playing in November 2017. The team played their first-ever match on 18 November 2017 against NorthEast United at the Indira Gandhi Athletic Stadium. Despite being disadvantaged through defender André Bikey being  sent off, Jamshedpur managed to hold on for a 0–0 draw. After another goalless draw in their next match, Jamshedpur played their first official home match on 1 December against the reigning champions ATK. Over 23,000 fans came to support the side at the JRD Tata Sports Complex but once again, the team failed to do more than draw 0–0. Finally, in their fourth match, away at Delhi Dynamos, Jamshedpur managed to earn their first victory. The club won 1–0 with Izu Azuka becoming the first-ever Jamshedpur goal scorer. By the halfway point of the season, Jamshedpur had only  managed two victories in the season including four draws and three defeats. This meant the team was in seventh place, six points off the playoff spots. Fortunes changed for Jamshedpur during the second half of the season and on 4 March 2018, the club played their final match of the Super League season at home against Goa with Jamshedpur needing a victory in order to qualify for the finals. Unfortunately, despite having home advantage, Jamshedpur fell 3–0 and thus failed to qualify for the finals in their first season. 2018–19 season. Jamshedpur FC appointed Cesar Ferrando as their new head  coach ahead of the 2018–19 season and made some overall changes to their squad. Michael Soosairaj, Sergio Cidoncha, Carlos Calvo and Mario Arques were some of the new signings along with Tiri, Memo, Subrata, and Farukh, who were retained from the last season. The club also made one of the high profile signings in the league’s history as they roped in Tim Cahill to their squad. The team had a decent start in the season as they won against Mumbai City and had as draw against Bengaluru FC at home. They were about to make it into the play -offs, but narrowly lost out on the play-off spot to NorthEast United and finished 5th in the table just like their inaugural season. In Hero Super Cup, which took place at Bhubaneswar, they were given a walkover against Churchil Brothers in the round of 16. In the next round, they lost against FC Goa and were knocked out of the tournament. 2019–20 season. Jamshedpur FC appointed Antonio Iriondo as their head coach ahead of the 2019–20 season of Indian Super League. As in the previous season, they signed some new players like C.K. Vineeth, who was the highest Indian  goalscorer of Kerala Blasters. Among the foreign players, they signed Aitor Monroy, Sergio Castel and Francisco Medina Luna and retained their core players like Tiri. Some of the young Indian players like Narender Gahlot and Amarjit Singh Kiyam were bought into the team Jamshedpur had an impressive start as they were unbeaten in the first 3 matches like in the previous two seasons. They started their season by defeating Odisha FC 2–1. They won against Hyderabad FC 3–1 in their second match and had a goalless draw against Bengaluru FC. The team had their first defeat of the season against  ATK in an away match where the match ended 3–1. It took some more games for the club to get their third win of the season as they defeated FC Goa. The team then had three back to back draws followed by three back to back defeats against Mumbai City FC, Odisha FC and Bengaluru FC. Unlike the previous two seasons, the club had a disappointing season as they were only able to finish eight place in the table. With eight defeats, they had the second most defeats along with NorthEast United FC and only had 4 wins during the  season. 2020–21 season. After a disappointing season, the club made some major changes at their helm as they appointed Owen Coyle, who led the struggling Chennaiyin FC into the ISL final in the last season. They made a total of twelve signings ahead of the season. They had a overall changes in their squad as they released most of the Indian players from the squad. Among the foreign players only Aitor Monroy and David Grande was retained. The club roped in the last season’s joint top scorer Nerijus Valskis. They signed and former Nigerian International in their defence. Brazilian  and Australian were the other signings ahead of the season. Jackichand Singh was one of the major Indian signings along with the players like T.P Rehenesh, Laldinliana Renthlei and Ricky Lallawmawma. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020–21 season were decided took place behind the closed-doors across three venues in Goa. Tilak Maidan Stadium in Vasco da Gama was selected as the home ground of Jamshedpur FC. Stadium. They play their home games at JRD Tata Sports Complex, popularly known as "The Furnace". The stadium was named after the former chairman of the "Tata Group", Bharat Ratna J. R.  D. Tata. The stadium was originally built in 1991, with a capacity for 60,000 spectators. In 2017 the stadium was renovated with the capacity of 24,424 (limited capacity for ISL games) – 40,000 (for other sports). Supporters. "The Red Miners" are the official supporters group of the club which was founded in 2017 along with the inception of the club. The players and the coach have often acknowledged the fans' support in the success by calling them "The 12th Man". Crest and colours. The round-shaped crest, with a shield (shape similar to Tata Football Academy crest) inside it; depicting sculpting  of a football out of molten steel, referring Jamshedpur FC's Tata Steel origins and the Tata Group's decades of a footballing journey through the Tata Football Academy and multiple grassroots efforts. The outer circle of the crest features the name of the club written in English and tribal symbols which pays tribute to the rich tribal history of Jharkhand state. In 2017, Jamshedpur signed a deal with Nivia Sports as their official kit sponsors from the 2017–18 season. Nivia Sports is the official kit sponsor of Jamshedpur FC. Players. Current squad. Honours. Domestic. League Cup Training facilities. JFC  Training Center (also known as the "Flatlet") is the training and relax center for Jamshedpur FC, located in Kadma, Jamshedpur. Besides the training field, the building comes with a fully equipped cross-fit gym, a swimming pool, and recreation centers. The project is lined with the vision of the club, where international-level training equipment would be available to the players. After its design plans were approved in April 2018, the groundbreaking ceremony of the all-weather training arena was held on 25 November 2017. Jamshedpur FC have a robust set-up in youth development with their grassroot-level activities  and the Tata Football Academy (now known as Jamshedpur FC Academy). The academy was awarded four stars in 2019–20 season by AIFF. eSports. The organizers of ISL introduced eISL, a FIFA video game tournament, for the ISL playing clubs, each represented by two players. Jamshedpur FC hosted a series of qualifying games for all the participants wanting to represent the club in eISL. On 20 November the club announced the signing of the two players.