The 2022–23 season is Bengaluru FC's tenth season as a club since its establishment in 2013. After spending two seasons in Goa, at a centralised venue due to COVID-19 pandemic, the club will return to Sree Kanteerava Stadium, despite the concerns raised by the athletes. This season also marks as the final season leading to the decennial anniversary of the club on 20 July 2023.
Bengaluru's season commenced with the 2022 edition of Durand Cup, which also acts as a curtain raiser for the domestic season. The 2022–23 season of Indian Super League will see the blues returning to the Sree Kanteerava Stadium after three years despite the concerns raised by the athletes. With the Super Cup returning after three years, the inaugural edition's champions will also participate in the tournament which is set to be held in 2023 after the league ends.
Background
In the previous season, the rebuilt Bengaluru FC squad led by Marco Pezzaiuoli finished sixth in the Indian Super League, it was the club's second worst finish in the league after ending up in the seventh spot in 2020–21 season. Before the league, Bengaluru FC made their fifth appearance in the 2021 season of AFC Cup where they failed to make it past the group stage after finishing third behind ATK Mohun Bagan and Bashundhara Kings with four points. Later, in the 2021 edition of Durand Cup, Bengaluru fielded their reserve squad with the assistant head coach Naushad Moosa leading the young team. The team's unbeaten run of four games was halted by FC Goa in the second semifinal, where they went down by a 7–6 margin on penalties.
After failing to qualify for the playoffs in two consecutive seasons, Bengaluru began to make changes in the squad with the likes of defenders Pratik Chaudhari and Sarthak Golui parting ways with the club along with the foreigners Iman Basafa, Cleiton Silva and the head coach Marco Pezzaiuoli who was on the performance-based contract. On 8 June, Bengaluru appointed former Fleetwood Town coach, Simon Grayson as their new head coach on a two-year contract.
Following the head coach's appointment, Bengaluru then handed over contract extensions for Roshan Singh, Lara Sharma and Wungngayam Muirang on two-years each and a three-year deal respectively. Later, on 20 June, Ashique Kuruniyan who had served the club for three seasons moved to ATK Mohun Bagan while Prabir Das from the same club was announced as a new right wingback addition. Two days later, the club strengthened their midfield by signing Spanish international Javi Hernández on a two-year deal. The management further extended the contracts of Parag Shrivas, Leon Augustine and Namgyal Bhutia.
Come July and Bengaluru would make a double deal with the likes of the 22-year-olds from I-League sides, Amrit Gope the former TRAU goalkeeper signed a two-year deal, and Faisal Ali the former Mohamemedan winger penned a deal that ends in 2025. A tragedy shook the Indian football fraternity on 4 July after Adrian Luna, the Kerala Blasters player, disclosed the passing of his six-year-old daughter to whom many players and clubs including Bengaluru FC paid condolences to. On 5 July, Bengaluru filled the void created by the departure of left-back Ajith Kumar by signing Hira Mondal from East Bengal. On 15 July, Yrondu Musavu-King, the Gabonese center-back parted ways with the club after serving for one season. Three days later, Bengaluru made their biggest signing of the season after they closed the deal with the Fijian star striker Roy Krishna who had previously won the Indian Super League Golden Ball in 2020–21 season
20 July 2022 marked the ninth anniversary of Bengaluru FC's foundation. The CEO of the club, Mandar Tamhane, tweeted in celebration of the foundation day, along with the former Bengaluru FC players Darren Caldeira, Cameron Watson and the reserve team head coach Naushad Moosa. On 22 July, Bengaluru completed their Asian slot by signing the six-foot five-inch tall center-back Aleksander Jovanovic from Australia. A day later, the club made four new domestic signings by bringing in the two local talents Sudheer Kotikela and Ankith Padmanabhan from the Karnataka state team along with the two young Goan players, Felixson Fernandes and Clarence Fernandes. They had been scouted from the JSW Youth Cup held a few months earlier in April.
Transfers in No.PositionPlayerPrevious clubDateFeeRef 33 Prabir Das ATK Mohun Bagan 20 June 2022 Undisclosed 18 Javi Hernández Odisha 22 June 2022 Free transfer 23 Faisal Ali Mohammedan 1 July 2022 Free transfer 50 Amrit Gope TRAU 1 July 2022 Free transfer 20 Hira Mondal East Bengal 5 July 2022 Free transfer 22 Roy Krishna ATK Mohun Bagan 18 July 2022 Free transfer 2 Aleksander Jovanovic Macarthur FC 22 July 2022 Free transfer 24 Sudheer Kotikala Kickstart FC 23 July 2022 Free transfer Ankith Padmanabhan Kickstart FC 23 July 2022 Free transfer Clarence Fernandes Dempo U-18 23 July 2022 Free transfer Felixson Fernandes RF Young Champs 23 July 2022 Free transfer 3 Sandesh Jhingan ATK Mohun Bagan 14 August 2022 Free transfer
Transfers out No.PositionPlayerOutgoing clubDateFeeRef 4 Pratik Chaudhari Jamshedpur 5 June 2022 Free agent 16 Sarthak Golui East Bengal 5 June 2022 Free transfer 10 Iman Basafa Kheybar Khorramabad 6 June 2022 Free transfer 23 Cleiton Silva East Bengal 6 June 2022 Free transfer 22 Ashique Kuruniyan ATK Mohun Bagan 20 June 2022 Undisclosed 29 Yrondu Musavu-King Without a club 15 July 2022 Free agent 19 Ajith Kumar Chennaiyin 28 July 2022 Undisclosed
Loans out No.PositionPlayerOutgoing clubDateFeeDurationRef 26 Bidyashagar Singh Kerala Blasters 17 August 2022 Undisclosed 1 year 20 Ajay Chhetri Punjab FC 1 September 2022 Undisclosed 1 year Rahul Raju Gokulam Kerala 31 August 2022 Undisclosed 1 year
Contract extensions No.PositionPlayerDateRef 32 Roshan Singh 2026 30 Lara Sharma 2026 15 Wungngayam Muirang 2025 27 Parag Shrivas 2025 25 Namgyal Bhutia 2026 31 Leon Augustine 2025
Players Bengaluru FC has 38 players under contract; the following list of players is subject to change during the transfer season. The final squad for the ISL will be officially announced by the club later.
Players under contract
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%; width:80%;" |- ! style="text-align:center;"|No. ! style="text-align:center;"|Name ! style="text-align:center;"|Nationality ! style="text-align:center;"|Position ! style="text-align:center;"|Date of Birth (Age) ! style="text-align:center;"|Since ! style="text-align:center;"|Until ! style="text-align:center;"|Picked for Durand Cup ! style="text-align:center;"|Picked for ISL ! style="text-align:center;"|Picked for Super Cup |- ! colspan="10" style="background:#2545A0; color:#FFFFFF; ; text-align:center;"|Goalkeepers |- |1 |Gurpreet Singh Sandhu | |GK | |2017 |2023
|30 |Lara Sharma | |GK | |2020 |2026
|43 |Sharon Padattil | |GK | |2020 |2023
|50 |Amrit Gope | |GK | |2022 |2024
! colspan="10" style="background:#2545A0; color:#FFFFFF; ; text-align:center;"|Defenders |- |2 |Aleksandar Jovanović | |CB | |2022 |2023
|3 |Sandesh Jhingan | |CB | |2022 |2023
|5 |Alan Costa ‡ | |CB | |2021 |2023
|15 |Wungngayam Muirang | |CB/LB | |2020 |2025
|20 |Hira Mondal ‡ | |LB | |2022 |2024
|27 |Parag Shrivas | |CB | |2019 |2025
|32 |Roshan Singh | |LB | |2020 |2026
|33 |Prabir Das | |RB | |2022 |2025
|— |Clarence Fernandes | |DF | |2022 |2025
|— |Felixson Fernandes | |CB | |2022 |2025
! colspan="10" style="background:#2545A0; color:#FFFFFF; ; text-align:center;"|Midfielders |- |4 |Ajay Chhetri † | |CDM | |2018 |2022
|6 |Bruno Ramires | |CM | |2021 |2023
|7 |Jayesh Rane | |CDM | |2021 |2024
|8 |Suresh Singh | |CDM | |2019 |2024
|10 |Javi Hernández | |CAM | |2022 |2024
|12 |Danish Farooq Bhat † | |LM | |2021 |2023
|18 |Rohit Kumar | |CDM | |2021 |2023
|25 |Namgyal Bhutia | |RM | |2020 |2026
|28 |Amay Morajkar | |CDM | |2020 |2024
|31 |Leon Augustine | |RW/RM | |2019 |2025
|35 |Biswa Darjee | |LM | |2020 |2024
|36 |Thoi Singh | |MF
|40 |Damaitphang Lyngdoh | |CAM | |2021 |2024
|42 |Akashdeep Singh | |MF | |2021 |2024
! colspan="10" style="background:#2545A0; color:#FFFFFF; ; text-align:center;"|Forwards |- |9 |Prince Ibara | |CF | |2021 |2023
|11 |Sunil Chhetri | |CF | |2013 |2023
|14 |Harmanpreet Singh | |CF | |2021 |2023
|17 |Edmund Lalrindika | |CF | |2019 |2022
|21 |Udanta Singh | |RW | |2014 |2023
|22 |Roy Krishna | |CF | |2022 |2023
|23 |Faisal Ali | |RW | |2022 |2025
|24 |Sudheer Kotikela | |FW | 20 August |2022 |2024
|26 |Bidyashagar Singh † | |FW | |2021 |2024
|38 |Sivasakthi Narayanan | |CF | |2021 |2022
|− |Ankith Padmanabhan | |FW | |2022 |2025
† Loaned out.
Injury record
Pre-season Bengaluru FC kicked off their pre-season training on 25 July 2022 with Simon Grayson leading the available squad in Ballari. Sunil Chhetri was part of the initial squad and made his record 10th pre-season appearance for the club. Midfielder Amay Morajkar, who had been out from the squad due to a long-term injury, also returned to the senior team in the training camp. On 27 July, the squad trained at Inspire Institute of Sport, a high-performance training center in Vijaynagar. New foreign signings Javi Hernández and Roy Krishna joined the training camp three days later.
On 14 August, faithful of Bengaluru FC reunited with the team for the first time in three years as the club hosted its traditional open pre-season training sessions at Bangalore Football Stadium (BFS), which is an event attended by the fans every season, to watch the club kickoff its new season. This season's event also featured the sale of free digital tickets for the first time. The last time when such an event was hosted at BFS was back in 2019 for the 2019–20 season. During the player announcement at the event, the club took off fans for a surprise after Sandesh Jhingan was announced as their new signing out of the blue. The Indian international had previously donned Bengaluru's jersey in the 2016-17 season.
Competitions
Overview
Indian Super League
The league returned to its traditional home-away format after spending two seasons at a centralized venue in Goa during the pandemic. In August, the athletes raised concerns about the damage to the athletic track in Sree Kanteerava Stadium due to pitch maintenance work. In response to this, the Department of Youth Empowerment and Sports (DYES), Government of Karnataka, had stated that it was regular upkeep work and the stadium could be let out for football purposes as per 'official procedures.' The league kicked off in October, and a total of six instead of four top-placed teams qualified for the playoffs.
Summary
League table
Result summary
Results by round
League stage The fixtures for the 2022–23 season of ISL were announced on 1 September. Bengaluru FC faced NorthEast United on 8 October.
Playoffs
Semifinals
2–2 on aggregate. Bengaluru won 9–8 on penalties.
Final
Durand Cup
Bengaluru FC had never won the Durand Cup and made their fourth appearance in the 131st edition of the tournament. They were clubbed in Group A with the defending champions FC Goa, two-time champions Mohammedan SC, Jamshedpur FC and one-time runners-up Indian Air Force, which is one of the four traditional armed forces' teams. Sunil Chhetri was reportedly set to play in Durand Cup after a gap of nine years.
On 15 August, Bengaluru announced a 25-man squad of primary players for the tournament which confirmed Chhetri's participation.
Group A