FC Goa

Inception

One of the traditional powerhouse regions of Indian football, Goa was bound to be one of the cities to participate in the Indian Super League from its inception. In early 2014, it was announced that the All India Football Federation, the national federation for football in India, and IMG-Reliance would be accepting bids for ownership of eight of nine selected cities for the upcoming Indian Super League, an eight-team franchise league modeled along the lines of the Indian Premier League and Major League Soccer in the United States. On 13 April 2014, it was announced that Venugopal Dhoot had won the bidding for the Goa franchise along with Dattaraj Salgaocar and Shrinivas Dempo. The club was officially launched on 26 August 2014 at a well-attended ceremony at the Goa Marriott Resort & Spa in Miramar.

On 23 September 2014 Virat Kohli Indian Cricketer was unveiled as one of the co-owners. The brand ambassador of the club is Bollywood actor Varun Dhawan. FC Goa is the first Indian sports club to launch a satellite TV Channel – FC Goa TV on Videocon D2H.

2014 Season

Brazilian footballer Zico signed as the club's Head Coach on 2 September 2014. On 20 September 2014 FC Goa officially confirmed French Hero Indian Super Leage winner and Arsenal footballer Robert Pires as their first marquee player. On 26 September Afghanistan captain Zohib Islam Amiri joined FC Goa. On 29 September another former Arsenal player André Santos joined Indian Super League side FC Goa. 14 players from the Dempo SC outfit alongside a Mohun Bagan loanee in Bikramjit Singh comprised the 15-player FC Goa domestic contingent. From the 2014 ISL Inaugural International Draft FC Goa selected Miroslav Slepička, Jan Šeda, Bruno Pinheiro, Youness Bengelloun, Miguel Herlein, Gregory Arnolin and Edgar Marcelino.

On 15 October 2014, FC Goa played their first Indian Super League match against Chennaiyin FC at the Fatorda Stadium, Goa. FC Goa lost four out of their first six matches but came back strongly in the second half of the tournament with five victories from their last eight encounters keeping five clean sheets in their 14 matches. Overall, Zico has done a remarkable job with six wins, four defeats and four draws, which took them to the second spot of the standings with 22 points. By finishing second in the league, the club qualified for the end-of-season play-offs, where they lost via a penalty shootout against Atlético de Kolkata in the semi-finals after a goalless draw.

At the end of season, Miroslav Slepička was the highest goal scorer for the team(5 goals). FC Goa had the longest unbeaten run in the league 10 games, Longest winning run in the league 4 games, Most shots on target in the league 134 shots and Most clean sheets in the league 7 games. Jan Šeda won the Golden Glove award.

2015 Season

After retaining Brazilian head coach, Zico, as well as the core Indian players from the 2014 season such as Romeo Fernandes, Mandar Rao Desai, Narayan Das, and Laxmikant Kattimani, Goa began the season in good fashion with a 2–0 victory at home against Delhi Dynamos. Goa went on the finish the regular season in first place, winning seven of their fourteen games, losing only once in the second half of the season. In the finals, Goa took on Delhi Dynamos in the semi-finals. After losing the away leg 1–0, Goa qualified for the final after winning the home leg 3–0. Goals from Jofre, Rafael Coelho, and Dudu Omagbemi, saw Goa win on aggregate 3–1.

Goa took on Chennaiyin in the final at the Fatorda Stadium. Bruno Pelissari gave Chennaiyin the lead in the 54th minute after missing his penalty before Goa took a 2–1 going into stoppage time through Thongkhosiem Haokip and Jofre. However, an own goal from Kattimani and a strike from Stiven Mendoza saw Chennaiyin win the match 3–2 and win the championship.

Home ground

The stadium opened in 1989 and in 2014 has been refurbished and upgraded according to the latest FIFA specifications to host The Lusofonia Games. It is designed with a 19,000 seating capacity.

Training ground

The training ground for the Gaurs is at Tilak Maidan, Vasco da Gama, Goa. The venue hosts matches of the I-League as well as local Goan leagues. The venue has the capacity to accommodate 12,000 spectators. In 2014 it has been upgraded satisfactorily to ensure most FIFA standards are maintained. Facilities include player changing rooms, lounge, dope control rooms and a media centre.The friendly matches of FC Goa are held here.

Ownership

The franchise is owned by Goan Football Club Pvt. Ltd. which used to consist of Dattaraj Salgaocar (37% stake) and Shrinivas Dempo (37% stake), which is now bought by Jaydev Mody (65% stake) Venugopal Dhoot (23% stake) and Virat Kohli (12% stake).

Current Owners

Former Owners

Attendance

Grassroots

FC Goa's grassroots development programme which commenced in February 2015, saw FC Goa reaching out to over 20,000 children FC Goa has a robust grassroots development programme . Over 1500 children between the age groups of 6 to 14 are currently being groomed by FC Goa. The U- 14 team, the Junior Gaurs are doing excellently well. FC Goa assigned coach Gavin Araujo, an AFC A license coach as its Head of the youth development and Katz Naidoo as the program's Technical Director. The adopted 16 schools include St Anthony's High School (Duler), St Anthony's HS (Guirim), Saraswat HS (Mapusa), St Britto's HS (Mapusa), Assagao Union School, St Joseph's HS (Calangute), Pilar Central School, St Lawrence HS (Agassaim) in the North. Our Lady of Poor HS (Tilamol), Our Lady of Fatima HS (Rivona), St Joseph HS (Chandor), Assumpta HS (Sarzora), Fr Agnel Ashram HS (Verna), St Rita HS (Maina), St Rock HS (Velim), St Xavier HS (Velim) are theschools who have been adopted by FC Goa from the South.

Current squad

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

Out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.