Kolkata: The start to the 11th season of India’s biggest club football competition is nine days away but Odisha FC have already made history. Not their men, who according to coach Sergio Lobera had an amazing season last time around, but the women’s team which has qualified to the main round of the first AFC Women’s Champions League next month.

Beating Singapore’s Lions City Sailors and Etihad FC of Jordan in Zarqa, Jordan, Odisha FC qualified for a seat at the high table of continental football. “We will support them,” said Odisha FC men’s team defender Carlos Delgado at the media day of the Indian Super League (ISL) here on Wednesday. “They have done an excellent job. It is important for football in India that they are in the main round.”

Sergio Lobera too hailed the achievement of coach Crispin Chhetri’s team. “Such things inspire the rest of the family,” said Lobera, the men’s team head coach.

The men’s team has made the final of the 2024 Bandodkar Trophy beating Brisbane Roar 2-1 in the semi-final with two goals from Hugo Boumous. “With respect to all the players, I think he is the best attacking midfielder in the league,” said Lobera of Boumous who has joined after being benched by Mohun Bagan Super Giant in the second half of the last season.

What makes Odisha FC, who played their first final in the Super Cup in January and made the 2023-24 ISL semi-final where they lost to Mohun Bagan Super Giant through a goal in the 90+3 minute, different, according to Lobera, is that they are not among teams who always seem to be “under compulsion to win.”

Lobera didn’t name names but Mohun Bagan Super Giant, the reigning league shield winners, will be among them. This term, Mohun Bagan will also be India’s only representative in the Asian Champions League two where they have been grouped with Al-Wakrah FC of Qatar, Iran’s Tractor FC and FC Ravshan of Tajikistan in Group A.

No problem: Molina

Mohun Bagan start on September 18 at home against Ravshan, five days after their ISL opener against Mumbai City FC. In ISL, a team can play four foreigners but there is no limit on that in Asia. Mohun Bagan coach Jose Molina though said that would not be a problem.

“The idea is to plan for the next match, always. We will plan for Mumbai City first and then think of the Champions League. It doesn’t matter which tournament we are playing or if the rules are different,” said Molina.

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