Kerala Blasters FC have officially appointed Shantanu Banerjee as their new Team Manager ahead of the upcoming Indian Super League season. Banerjee is a highly seasoned professional in Indian football sports management, bringing over a decade of experience in team operations, logistics, budget management, and player coordination. Rather than handling tactical coaching, his role as Team Manager focuses heavily on executing seamless off-pitch operations, ensuring compliance with league guidelines, and bridging communication between support staff and the squad.
His extensive career path across major Indian football clubs includes stints as Team Manager at FC Goa from 2021 to 2022, SC East Bengal from 2020 to 2021, Chennaiyin FC from 2019 to 2020, Delhi Dynamos FC from 2018 to 2019, and Ozone FC Bengaluru from 2017 to 2018. While initial structural arrangements planned for the preseason camp to kick off this week across Bengaluru or Chennai, the club’s administrative schedule has run into recent logistical delays. Due to a holdup in clearance payments from incoming minority investors, the squad’s initial on-pitch preseason training camp has been temporarily postponed.
To ensure continuity, Magnum Sports will continue to fully direct and run the primary day-to-day operations for Kerala Blasters this season. The new Dubai-based investment consortium will step in with a minority stake for the upcoming season before seeing through a complete full takeover next year. Banerjee and the management team are actively working behind the scenes to iron out these operational details so that newly appointed head coach Ashley Westwood can convene the squad for full training as quickly as possible. The delay in preseason preparations comes at a crucial time, as the club navigates a monumental ownership transition.
Despite initial rumors that the club’s base might shift to Calicut or Malappuram, Kerala Blasters will officially continue playing their home games in Kochi at the iconic Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Under Westwood, the team is looking to reconstruct its squad and establish long-term financial stability. While transfer windows and squad assembly are heavily dependent on the new Dubai owners, key players from the current roster include captain Adrián Luna, Vibin Mohanan, Aibanbha Dohling, Hormipam Ruivah and Fallou Ndiaye.