Ishfaq Ahmed (born 17 March 1983) is a former Indian footballer who currently works as the

assistant coach A sports coach is a person coaching in sport, involved in the direction, instruction and training of a sports team or athlete. History The original sense of the word ''coach'' is that of a horse-drawn carriage, deriving ultimately from the Hun ...

Kerala Blasters FC Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established ...

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

. He is also a member of the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

technical committee. Ishfaq is one among the two professional footballers, along with

Mehrajuddin Wadoo Mehrajuddin Wadoo (born 12 February 1984) is an Indian professional manager and former footballer. He is the current head coach of I-League club Mohammedan. During his playing days, Wadoo played for clubs such as Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, Sal ...

, to come from Jammu and Kashmir. He has represented the country and has played in the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

and the

for several clubs including

Dempo Dempo Mining Corporation Limited is a prominent mining company from the western Indian state of Goa. The mineral business was founded by Mr. Vasantrao S. Dempo in 1941 along with his younger brother Mr. Vaikuntrao Dempo. Mr. Vasantrao S. Demp ...

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

, Salgaocar,

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

, Mohammedan,

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...

, Pune F.C, and Mumbai F.C. He has also won the league title while also winning domestic cups such as the Federation Cup and

Durand Cup The Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as Durand Cup, is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Shimla. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and All India Football Federation ...

Club career

Early career

Born in the Barbar Shah locality in Srinagar, Jammu and Kashmir, Ahmed started his sports career as a

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

player. Despite more opportunities to play cricket, Ahmed admitted that his first sporting love was football and he started to play the game at Biscoe School while also playing for the local side, YMCA. At the age of seventeen, Ahmed lead YMCA to the state league title, becoming the state top scorer in the process while playing as a striker. He credits his first football coach, Satpal Singh, for getting him to become a professional footballer: "Satpal Singh not only brushed up my skills but also helped me turn into a professional. My teachers at Biscoe and Gandhi College also supported me a lot." After playing for YMCA, Ahmed started to play for the Jammu and Kashmir Bank football team. After good performances with the side, Ahmed was selected to join the Jammu and Kashmir under-21 side for the Dutta Ray Trophy as captain. Due to his performance during the Dutta Ray Trophy, Ahmed was awarded the best player of the tournament award. After the tournament, Ahmed signed with

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manufacturers in the worl ...

(HAL). During his only season at HAL, Ahmed scored seven goals in the

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

, including strikes against major sides such as

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

, and Churchill Brothers. After one season with HAL, Ahmed signed with

. He stayed with the club for four seasons, winning the

title twice, a Federation Cup, and a

. He began his career at Dempo as a striker but after head coach Armando Colaco signed Beto to play as striker, Ahmed was put onto the bench. After being knocked-out of the Federation Cup by Ahmed's old side HAL Colaco changed his tactics and put Beto in the midfield while pairing Ahmed with Nigerian player, Ranti Martins.

Mohun Bagan

After the 2006–07 season, Ahmed was offered a contract extension with Dempo but decided to think it over after a lack of playing time.

secretary, Debasish Dutta, contacted Ahmed and offered him a contract with the Kolkata side. Ahmed was at first pensive about signing for Mohun Bagan since Kolkata clubs were known to pay their players late and overall bad management but after some consideration, Ahmed signed a one-year deal with Mohun Bagan. His first season at Mohun Bagan saw Ahmed play 37 matches and he played mainly as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

. He helped the side win the Federation Cup in 2008 and finished as runners up during the 2008–09 I-League season. He was also named as the best player during the Santosh Trophy in 2008. During the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. ...

season, Ahmed was named as Mohun Bagan captain, becoming the first Kashmiri captain in the club's history.

Later career

After four years with

, Ahmed moved back to Goa to sign with

side Salgaocar. He helped the side win the Federation Cup in 2011 before moving to Mohun Bagan's Kolkata rivals,

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

. He was a regular fixture in the squad for East Bengal during the 2012–13 I-League season as East Bengal finished third. After the season ended, Ahmed signed a contract with IMG–Reliance to be part of the

. Despite signing the contract, Ahmed was left without an I-League side as the clubs agreed not to sign any players who joined the ISL, until Mohammedan, another Kolkata club, signed Ahmed on 30 October 2013. In July 2014, Ahmed was selected by the

during the Indian player draft for the

. He made his debut for the side on 30 October 2014 against Pune City. He came on as a 25th-minute substitute for Ramandeep Singh as the Blasters won 2–1. Ahmed then went on to score the first goal for Kerala Blasters in leg 1 of the 2014 Indian Super League playoffs match-up against Chennaiyin. His 27th-minute strike was the first of a 3–0 rout of the Chennai side. After the season ended, Ahmed joined

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

for the I-League campaign on loan before rejoining Kerala Blasters for 2015. For the 2015 season, Ahmed became a player-assistant coach for the Kerala Blasters. After the Indian Super League season, on 26 February 2016, it was announced that Ahmed would join another I-League side on loan,

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' fin ...

for the 2015–16 season.

Mohammedan

on 26 May 2017, it was announced that Ahmed would join

I-League 2nd Division I-League 2, previously known as I-League 2nd Division and officially known as or Hero I-League 2 (for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp), is an Indian men's professional football league. It is the 3rd tier of Indian football, behind Indian ...

side on loan, Mohammedan for next two season.

International career

After good performances for

, Ahmed was called up to the India U23 side by head coach, Stephen Constantine, for Olympic qualification. Ahmed scored on his debut for the side against Turkmenistan U23 as India won 1–0. In 2005 he was called for the national team for 2006 World Cup qualification matches but could not find place in first 11.

Coaching career

He started his coaching career with

as player cum assistant manager in 2015. After retirement from football, he joined

Jamshedpur FC Jamshedpur Football Club (, ) is an Indian professional football club based in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian Football. Founded in 2017, the club debuted in Indian Super League during ...

as their assistant coach under Steve Coppell, with whom he previously worked at

. After Coppell's departure from Jamshedpur he also left the club. In 2019 Ishfaq returned to

as their assistant coach under the newly appointed head coach Eelco Schattorie. In 2020 he extended his contract with the Blasters for another 3 years. On 17 February 2021, Ishfaq took over as the interim head coach at the Blasters after the head coach Kibu Vicuna and the club decided to part away on mutual consent. He managed the club in the last two games of the season.

AlFF committee member

On 23 March 2017, Ishfaq was selected to the All India Football Fedreation's Technical Committee member.

References

External links

Indian Super League Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Ishfaq 1983 births Living people People from Srinagar Indian footballers Hindustan Aeronautics Limited S.C. players Dempo SC players Mohun Bagan AC players Salgaocar FC players East Bengal Club players Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players Kerala Blasters FC players Pune FC players Mumbai FC players Association football midfielders Association football forwards Footballers from Jammu and Kashmir National Football League (India) players Calcutta Football League players Goa Professional League players I-League players Indian Super League players India youth international footballers Kerala Blasters FC head coaches Indian Super League head coaches Kerala Blasters FC non-playing staff Indian football managers