East Bengal is not only one of the oldest active football clubs in India, but it is also among the most successful ones. Most Calcutta Football League titles, second-most number of Durand Cup trophies, and a host of silverware decorate its trophy room.
But one title, the I-League, previously India’s top flight, has eluded it, with its last premier division trophy coming in 2004, when it was called the National Football League.
In the I-League, it has come close on multiple occasions, be it losing the race on the final matchday after a 1-1 draw with NEROCA in 2018, or seeing the trophy slip despite beating Gokulam Kerala 2-1 a year later.
The top flight changed to the Indian Super League, but fortune still didn’t smile on the Red-and-Gold Brigade. That jinx is what Oscar Bruzon, East Bengal’s current coach, wants to break this season.
The club has had a remarkable turnaround under his stewardship, climbing from the bottom of the table when he took charge to topping the table this season, with two more rounds to go.
“From my very first day, I think that apart from being a coach and focusing on the technical things, I am a passionate guy, so I internalised the colours of East Bengal. I am not going to hide it,” he said.
“I know what has been happening in the previous years in East Bengal, the struggle and attempts to come back. I even know what happened in the last I-League game in the season 2018-2019, when the last game of the season was a failure (in the title race),” he added.
Bruzon took charge in October 2024, and almost built a team from scratch — East Bengal is the only team to do so thrice in the last six seasons — and finally found consistency and form in the 2025-26 season, reaching the finals of the IFA Shield and the AIFF Super Cup, losing both on penalties.
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“I know what happened this season when we made a tremendous effort to win a trophy, and we lost two finals. It looks like it is a story of pain,” he said.
But that memory is what he and his boys will look to bury when they take on the reigning Indian Super League (ISL) champion Mohun Bagan Super Giant, here on Sunday. The Spaniard had arrived at East Bengal hours before a Kolkata derby, where he saw his team lose 0-2.
Since then, his team has lost just once in the next five Kolkata derbies in regulation time. And Sunday’s derby presents him with a chance to complete the circle of his expeditions with the Red-and-Gold Brigade.
“Tomorrow is going to be my last derby, and I hope that it is going to be the moment when we can shed that negative tendency,” he said.
“I will never forget that I came here, and East Bengal was sitting at the bottom of the table. One and a half years later, when we are about to finish the season, we have the opportunity to talk to all of you about the title. Football sometimes is not about technicalities, players or systems; it’s about mentality. So, that is the biggest change in East Bengal,” Bruzon added.
Bruzon was all praise for his team’s arch-rival, but maintained that on the basis of performance, his boys are riding high on confidence. Both Bagan and East Bengal have lost just once throughout the season, while the latter has scored more (27 vs 20) and enjoys a greater goal difference (+18 vs +13).
“We have built a unit of winners, and I hope we will put that winning mentality on a daily basis,” Bruzon said, a day prior to the match.
“On Mohun Bagan’s side, well, they are the current champions. They have the biggest budget, both in the domestic contingent and in the foreign contingent. They have a squad that was prepared to play in international competitions. But if we need to talk about performance, which is our part. I’m confident, determined, and really believe that our guys can play a good game tomorrow, and we can take the three points with us,” he added.
Bruzon has been a consistent winner in club football in Bangladesh and the Maldives. But in the Indian Super League, he, like East Bengal, is yet to break the duck. And come Sunday would be the perfect setting to change that in Kolkata.
Published on May 16, 2026