Mohun Bagan Reserves won the tournament with a 3-0 dominating final win last season. After a shaky start to the season that expanded to clueless plans and scattered gameplay, the Defending Champions have bowed out of RFDL in a devastating early exit fashion from the National Round itself.
A Shaky Start to the Season: -
In the Regional Qualifiers of East Region, Mohun Bagan U-21 won the first match by a single goal against IFA Bengal Future Champs. A shaky start that was quickly forgotten after 6-0, 8-0 and 2-0 wins against Victoria Sporting Club, United Sports Club and Diamond Harbour FC respectively. On 25th January, 2026, being the favourites and defending champions, the Mariners faced arch rivals East Bengal U-21.
The match started, and the players were all over the place. The game lacked intent as the passes in the attacking third hardly found a friendly face. The defence stood strong for a while, and soon after, in a counter attack, Ricky Singh scored at 47’ to give the rivals the first lead of the match. This wasn’t just any match, it was the derby. While the spectators and supporters knew that, the players on the field didn’t show that level of hunger that this fixture demands. The game continued in the same way, with not much change in the structure or gameplan. The rivals kept the pressure on. Even after receiving a red card and going down to 10-men at 84’, Deggie’s boys couldn’t mount a comeback. With all-out attack, in 90+4’, Ricky Singh found the target in a counter attack. The final whistle blew as Mohun Bagan lost the Regional Qualifiers Derby 2-0 to East Bengal.
With 12 points from 4 victories in 5 matches, Mohun Bagan qualified to Zonal Group Stage with a 2nd place finish in the Table.
Clear Warnings in the Air: -
In the Zonal Group Stage, Mohun Bagan U-21, the team that just defeated Diamond Harbour FC 2-0 on 23rd January, drew 1-1 against them on 29th January. The downward trend had already started!
Following the result, the Reserves got two wins of 3-1 and 2-0 against weaker teams like Rajasthan United U-21 and Bidhannagar Municipal SA. Up next was a game of redemption on 7th February. Derby Match against East Bengal U-21.
Another heart-breaking result of 0-1 against our arch rivals where Romin scored at 57’ and Bagan U-21 failed to equalize!
In the last match, Mohun Bagan drew 2-2 with United SC, whom they previously defeated 8-0 in the Regional Qualifiers! Talk about a downfall.
Securing 8 points from 5 matches, Mohun Bagan finished 3rd in the table out of 6 participants and managed to qualify for the National Group Stage.
Early Farewell To RFDL Title Defence: -
The star-studded team that owned all other teams and became Champions, had somehow managed to reach the National Group Stage, a qualification stage below the National Championship that Mohun Bagan had conquered last year.
This year, with fresh inclusion of new talent and experienced strikers like Suhail Bhat joining the squad, the aim was surely to defend the title. Alas, the Mariners had to face reality much earlier.
Starting of with two draws against BFC and DHFC, the team bounced back in the next fixture with 1-0 win versus FC Goa. The win-streak was never formed as the team threw a 2-0 lead in the following match to settle for 2-2 scoreline with Sreenidi Deccan.
The next two matches, the performance dropped significantly. The Young Colts lost 2-3 to Sudeva Delhi and 1-0 to FC Goa. With lack of coordination and questionable game styles, Deggie Cardozo failed to make the results come back in favour for the Mariners.
The next match, Mohun Bagan U-21 drew 0-0 with DHFC – a score that put them dangerously close to elimination. They had to go unbeaten in the rest of the tournament to qualify for the National Championship, where the real competition was.
On 17th March, 2026, Mohun Bagan U-21 faced Bengaluru FC U-21 and lost 0-1 to them. This was the final nail in the coffin for the Mariners in RFDL 2025/26.
Despite being eliminated, the team won the following 2 matches, 3-0 against Sreenidi Deccan and 2-0 against Sudeva Delhi, teams that they drew and lost against earlier. This placed Mohun Bagan in 4th spot in the Table with 13 points and +3 GD, whereas BFC and FC Goa qualified with 19 points(+9 GD) and 14 points(-3 GD) respectively. One cannot help but wonder if Mohun Bagan managed to win a draw or draw a loss to get one point and qualify. That thought would be in vain as with this horrendous performance of the squad under Coach Deggie Cardozo, the team would bring further humiliation to the name of Mohun Bagan on the biggest stage of Youth League.
Mohun Bagan finishes their RFDL 2026 campaign with a 2-0 Victory!
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— MBFT (@MBFT89) March 23, 2026
Statistics of Mohun Bagan Reserves under Deggie Cardozo
Coach Deggie Cardozo assisted by Assistant Coach, Biswajit Ghoshal, has managed to win just 9, draw 6 and lose 5 out of 20 matches of RFDL, which led to the total win percentage of 45%. The U-18 team has a 72.73 % win rate in 11 matches in U-18 League under Deggie but his Calcutta Football League win rate is at just even at 50%. There hasn’t been any considerable improvement as Mohun Bagan finished 6th and got eliminated once again before reaching the Super Six Round. The team lost the CFL Derby as well with final scoreline of 2-3 with main team players like Kiyan Nassiri in the Starting XI. Comparing with the previous CFL season of 2024/25, the statistics are much worse! Mohun Bagan finished 7th and was eliminated before reaching Super Six Round. This season, Young Colts lost the CFL Derby 2-1 and got 0-0,1-0 and 1-2 in RFDL (1 W, 1 D, 1 L) followed by a win in penalties of exhibition match in UP CM Cup with final scoreline of 1(3)-1(2). These losses add up to the derby tally count that keeps increasing against our favour despite senior team derby win-streak supremacy in ISL.
Suhail Ahmad Bhat scored 5 goals in 3 matches of Regional Qualifiers. With a striker of his quality, it was expected to be more. The comment gets justified as his goal count reduces to 3 in Zonal Stage from 3 matches and to just 1 goal in 2 matches of National Stage. As a player of his calibre who has represented India in senior team before, has scored a mere number of 9 goals in 8 matches of RFDL.
Goalkeeper Priyansh Dubey had 11 cleansheets in total, out of which 6 were from the 10 games in National Round! That is quite impressive but unfortunately, it wasn't enough.
Coach Deggie's statistics are extremely low compared to other coaches of Youth Talent. U-16 Coaches, Tanumoy Basu and Chanchal Saha, stand at 83.33% at RYFS and 80% overall, and U-14 Coach, Pratam Bahadur Thapa, has a win percentage of 75%.
Bad statistics paint only half the picture. It’s the gameplay that hurts the eye. Under Coach Cardozo, the players on the field looked disoriented most of the time. When the team had the lead, there was no guarantee of securing 3 points. Despite winning in earlier rounds, the team performance deteriorated over time. Bagan drew and lost to the same teams in the next rounds. Had it not been for the exceptional keeper performance in some matches, more losses would be in our name. Derby defeats in Youth and Development Leagues instills a negative memory in the future players of the club.
What’s next for Mohun Bagan Youth?
It’s hard to come back from such a disappointing result in RFDL. The default answer would be: Reset, Rebuild, and prepare for a fresh start next season. In practicality, the players have their work cut out to do and the management must make the serious decisions when it is absolutely necessary.
Proper funding is done towards youth development, and when results don’t come, questions need to be answered. The Recruiting Team needs to focus on more diversifying their options rather than gatekeeping themselves to some particular regions. Since last year, there was a dearth of striker options after releasing Serto and Adil, which led to Suhail from senior team to feature for the Reserves. The team terribly missed a proper defensive midfielder this season, which was previously occupied by Sibajit and improper recruitments such as multiple winger signings led to them playing in unsuitable positions. The gaps hidden in our trophy-winning season have exacerbated the issues of current season.
There were rumours about some players taking this opportunity for granted to be on the lookout for agents. In some instances, ego-clashes on the pitch were noticable; which should be substituted for collective effort, in order to perform together as a team. Despite these tricky situations that should definitely be addressed, since last year, we saw several players getting promoted from youth team to senior team and many getting selected in other ISL teams as well. This year, the quality and talent is there, as many from the squad have got the call to represent India in the U-20 and U-23 formats. Responsibility of getting these players in synergy and getting positive results also falls on the coaching team. The management must focus in ensuring proper discipline and in getting the players in-line to deliver a concerted effort, as it is of utmost importance if the aim is to win matches and bring home trophies.
It’s high time everyone understood the meaning behind the colours of Green-and-Maroon and take the development of youth talent seriously. Mohun Bagan goes on the field everytime to play and win every match. If the ones responsible are not capable of developing the youth of the National Club of India, maybe it is time to either step up or step off the role. Mohun Bagan deserves better!
Mohun Bagan finishes their RFDL 2026 campaign with a 2-0 Victory!
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