The 2016 season was the third season in Kerala Blasters FC's existence, as well as their third season in Indian Super League. After finishing second position in the league stage, the club managed to make it to the final. In the finals, they were again defeated by Atlético de Kolkata, this time through the penalty shoot-out.
Background In 2016, in an effort to rebuild after failing to qualify for the finals the previous season, Kerala Blasters announced the signing of former Crystal Palace manager Steve Coppell as head coach on 21 June 2016. A week later, the club announced the signing of Northern Ireland international Aaron Hughes as their marquee player for the season. Other moves made before the season included the signing of Graham Stack, Kervens Belfort, Duckens Nazon, and Mohammed Rafique and return of former players Michael Chopra and Cédric Hengbart.
The season began where the previous left off, with a 1–0 defeat away from home against NorthEast United. After the first month of the season, the Blasters had one of the best defenses statistically in the league but struggled in attack. In the second half of the season, after the return of C.K. Vineeth from loan with Bengaluru FC, the Blasters managed to surge their way into the playoffs. They achieved this by defeating Delhi Dynamos 3–0 in a penalty shootout during the semi-final. In the final, the Kerala Blasters would play host to Atlético de Kolkata. The Blasters took the lead early through Mohammed Rafi before Kolkata equalized soon after. The match went into a penalty shootout, Despite taking the lead early in the shootout, the Kerala Blasters lost 4–3 and thus were defeated in their second final in three seasons.
Players Squad
Source: Indian Super League 2016
Transfers
Retained
Foreign players Position Player MF Josu FW Antonio German
Indian players Position Player GK Sandip Nandy DF Gurwinder Singh DF Sandesh Jhingan MF C.K. Vineeth MF Ishfaq Ahmed MF Mehtab Hossain FW Mohammed Rafi
New signings PositionPlayerLast clubDateRef Thongkhosiem Haokip Goa7 July 2016 Pratik Chowdhary Mumbai13 July 2016 Aaron Hughes Melbourne City28 July 2016 Graham Stack Barnet3 August 2016 Michael Chopra Alloa Athletic7 August 2016 Elhadji Ndoye Kyzylzhar9 August 2016 Kervens Belfort 1461 Trabzon12 August 2016 Cédric Hengbart NorthEast United16 August 2016 Mohammed Rafique Atlético de Kolkata22 August 2016 Azrack Mahamat Levadiakos23 August 2016 Rino Anto Atlético de Kolkata26 August 2016 Didier Kadio Zhetysu30 August 2016 Vinit Rai Dempo2 September 2016 Duckens Nazon Tondela6 September 2016 Kunal Sawant Mumbai7 September 2016 Mohammad Ansari Pune7 September 2016 Prasanth Karuthadathkuni AIFF Elite Academy7 September 2016 Farukh Choudhary Lonestar Kashmir7 September 2016
Pre-season
Indian Super League
Results summary
Results
Player statistics Season stats # Position Player 1 GK Graham Stack 6 0 2 DF Pratik Chowdhary 8 0 5 DF Cédric Hengbart 17 1 6 DF Aaron Hughes 9 1 7 MF Mohammed Rafique 10 0 8 MF Vinit Rai 2 0 9 FW Kervens Belfort 13 3 10 FW Antonio German 11 0 11 MF Ishfaq Ahmed 6 0 12 FW Thongkhosiem Haokip 1 0 13 FW C.K. Vineeth 9 5 14 MF Mehtab Hossain 16 0 16 DF Gurwinder Singh 1 0 17 FW Farukh Choudhary 2 0 19 DF Elhadji Ndoye 4 0 20 FW Mohammed Rafi 13 2 21 DF Sandesh Jhingan 17 0 22 FW Prasanth Karuthadathkuni 0 0 23 GK Kunal Sawant 0 0 24 GK Sandip Nandy 10 0 27 FW Michael Chopra 10 1 30 GK Mohammad Ansari 0 0 31 DF Rino Anto 3 0 57 MF Didier Kadio 11 1 78 FW Duckens Nazon 11 2 88 MF Azrack Mahamat 11 0 99 DF Josu 15 0
See also 2016–17 in Indian football
References