Sporting Club Bengaluru set their sights on ISL

The Golden Tigers emerged as I-League 2 champions and qualified for the next season’s I-League top tier with two matches left to play.

Bengaluru: Sporting Club Bengaluru, founded a couple of years ago, have taken giant strides since their inception. In a barnstorming run, The Golden Tigers emerged I-League 2 champions and qualified for the next season’s I-League top tier with two matches left to play.

Head coach Chinta Chandrashekar Rao, who has been with the club from the beginning, has overseen the rapid rise from BDFA Super Division champions to I-League 2 champions within a span of three years.

Chinta, who hails from Hubballi, featured for Sporting Clube de Goa, Salgaocar, United Sports Club and Mumbai FC in the I-League during his playing days. He shed more light on the club’s keys to success and plans for the I-League in an interaction with DH.

“The management of Sporting Club Bengaluru has been pushing in the right direction. They know their Indian football. Putting the right system in place, choosing the right staff, signing the right players, all these things helped in building a professional set-up,” Chinta said.

“I have a set of players who are hungry to succeed, hungry to learn and grow. It is wonderful to play with such a mentality,” Chinta added.

The club has an ambition of making it to the Indian Super League, and they can achieve this objective by winning the I-League. Chinta outlined that his playing experience in the I-League will hold the team in good stead. “Playing in the I-League helped me understand what the standards are and what kind of players to sign. Having a united team with one mindset is important,” Chinta, a Tata Football Academy graduate, said.

“As coaching staff, we work really hard together and that rubs off on the players. I am still learning as a coach, but the players’ understanding is very strong,” the 35-year-old added.

As many as nine local players feature in the SCB squad for I-League 2, and Chinta believes that the much-improved standard of football in the BDFA Super Division played a key role in the club’s ascent.

“In two years, we have built a fan base due to the contributions of our local players. The BDFA Super Division has raised its standards. All of Karnataka, KSFA and BDFA have been a part of this journey,” Chinta said. “Having clubs in the I-league is great for the city and the state. This creates more opportunities for the local players and will help the sport grow more,” Chinta outlined.

The next objective for SCB will be to get the kind of foreign and Indian players in the transfer window who are I-League ready.

“We will sit with the management after I-League 2 and finalise our key targets. We need to make sure that there is a good mixture of experience and youth. I-League is not easy, and the foreigners and Indians coming in, together with our existing squad, need to lend more balance,” Chinta signed off.