Mumbai City FC

On 15 September 2014, the club signed Nicolas Anelka, a former French international who had been a free agent since his departure from West Bromwich Albion earlier in the year.[13] Three days later, former Swedish international Freddie Ljungberg was signed as the team's first marquee player, returning from two years of retirement.[14]

Mumbai were the visitors in the first ever ISL match on 12 October 2014, at Atlético de Kolkata's Salt Lake Stadium. Without Anelka and Ljungberg, the side lost 3–0.[15] On 18 October 2014, the club registered their first victory over FC Pune City by beating them 5–0 at DY Patil Stadium, Mumbai, in which André Moritz registered the first ever hat-trick of ISL.[16] The team finished seventh in the table out of eight and did not qualify for the playoffs.

In July 2015, Nicolas Anelka became player-manager, replacing Englishman Peter Reid.[17] Frantz Bertin was appointed captain at the beginning of the season.[18] The club signed India's All Time Record Goal Scorer and Indian National Football Team captain Sunil Chhetri for a domestic record-breaking deal of ₹ 1.2 Crore.[19] The club also signed 2015 I-league's player of the year Haitian Sony Norde.[20] Sunil Chhetri was the top scorer for Blues as he scored 7 Goals including a hat trick against North East United FC[21] Mumbai won only four matches and lost six matches out of 14 matches to finish in sixth position in the group table. Due to such results, Anelka resigned and announced his departure at the end of the season.[22]

Owner Ranbir Kapoor with former player Sunil Chhetri

After first two seasons, Mumbai City's management made big changes as they appointed Alexandre Guimarães as the head coach for the 2016–17 Indian Super League (ISL) season. The club also moved into their new home, Mumbai Football Arena. The club also signed 2010 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball winner Diego Forlán on a three-month deal, with Option to Extend for another year as a marquee.[23]

Ljungberg sat out the first season after a few brief appearances.Nicolas Anelka moved to a coaching role. This season showcased Diego Forlán. The Uruguayan changed the dynamics of a struggling team to title contenders. Forlan scored the first hat-trick of the Hero Indian Super League 2016 season as Mumbai City FC beat Kerala Blasters 5–0 at Mumbai Football Arena on 19 November 2016.[24] It was also the first hat-trick of any marquee player in the history of the ISL. The team conceded the fewest goals (8) of all teams in the league, whilst Lucian Goian has the most number of tackles (67) in the league. This managed to fix the goal conceded stat in favour of the Mumbaikars. Alexandre's men kept 8 clean sheets in the group stage, making it a record across all the three editions of the tournament. This had been possible due to the rugged approach of the team. A compact midfield and a packed defense have kept the opposition attackers at bay. Argentine Matias Defederico had been partnering Forlan up front. The dual forward strategy had reaped benefits for the team. They have received the record for inflicting the biggest defeat when they had 5 goals past FC Pune City. As a result, Mumbai City finished the 14 rounds with 6 wins, 5 draws and 3 losses. This was a steep improvement from previous seasons. However, it went down to Atletico de Kolkata in the twin legged semi-finals.

The Mumbai franchise continued to work with Alexandre Guimarães after he guided the club to their first ever playoffs in three seasons. The club opted to re-sign Amrinder Singh for 12.0 million INR. He was the best goalkeeper in the league in 2016, keeping record clean sheets for the club. They also retained the services of midfielder Sehnaj Singh who was instrumental in the club's success in the earlier season. In the foreign department, they retained the defensive duo of Lucian Goian and Gerson Vieira and midfielder Leo Costa. They also retained Rakesh Oram under the U-21 player quota. They finished the season in 7th position, failing to qualify for the playoffs, with the coach being criticized for overly defensive tactics.

Mumbai City FC also took part in the inaugural edition of the Super Cup. They kicked off proceedings smoothly by defeating Indian Arrows by a scoreline reading 2–1 in the qualifier Round. However they were handed a defeat by East Bengal FC in the Round of 16. On 14 August 2018, Mumbai City FC officially stated that, "Mumbai City FC and Alexandre Guimarães have parted company by mutual consent." This ended the Guimarães Era with the Brazilian-born Costa Rican manager being with the Islanders since 2016.

After the announcement that Mumbai City FC had parted ways with Guimarães, the Islanders broke the news about their new head coach. Former Portugal international Jorge Costa had signed to be the coach of Mumbai City FC for the 2018/19 Indian Super League season. The club also signed India Internationals Alen Deory and Subhasish Bose. The Foreign Players for the new season were announced to be Modou Sougou, Rafael Bastos, Marko Klisura, Arnold Issoko, Paolo Machado, Matias Mirabaje, and long standing central defender Lucian Goian. The team started the season with a 2–0 loss at home to Jamshedpur, followed by a 1–1 draw to Kerala Blasters. The team then recorded a 2–0 win against FC Pune City, and then lost 5–0 to Goa. After that Coach Costa made some interesting tactical changes which led to the club's best unbeaten run in history (9 games unbeaten). The team ended December with a 6–1 win against Kerala Blasters, with Modou Sougou scoring 4 of the team's 6 goals in the match, which was a record breaking tally as Sougou became the First player in the league to score 4 goals, & it was Mumbai's best victory against any club. They also managed to break league leaders Bengaluru FC 's unbeaten run at Mumbai Football Arena in January. The club managed to secure Play-off Finish with a 3–1 Victory against ATK on 22 February 2019 with a game in hand thanks to Modou Sougou 's second hattrick, which is also a record for having maximum hattricks for the Mumbai team. The 3rd-place finish saw them face off against FC Goa , which resulted in an embarrassing 5–1 defeat at Home despite Mumbai opening the scoring. But they managed to bounce back and beat Goa in the Away fixture by a scoreline of 1–0. It wasn't enough however as the team had to bow out based on Goal Difference and hence couldn't play in the 2018/19 ISL Final happening in Mumbai itself. Even though Mumbai Lost in Play-offs, Arnold Issoko won the DHL Winning Pass of the League Award for his maximum assists (8 assists) in the League & Modou Sougou became joint second goalscorer with 12 Goals. Fan Favorite Amrinder Singh ended the league with most number of saves & joint highest number of clean sheets (6). With that positive note, on 19 March 2019, the officials of the club confirmed that Head Coach Jorge Costa had extended his stay at the club. The Portuguese signed a one-year extension and would continue to be at the helm for the Islanders until the end of the 2019/20 season.

The next task at hand for Jorge Costa and the side was the 2019 Hero Super Cup with the Islanders drawn to play Chennaiyin FC in the Round of 16 on 29 March at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneshwar. Costa opted to play with an almost all-Indian Squad having Lucian Goian as the only foreign recruit in their ranks. Costa also Promoted two highly rated youngsters from the youth ranks, Mohammed Kaif & Nakul Shelke. The team started off promisingly, but failed to capitalise on the chances created & were eliminated from the Super Cup with a 2–0 defeat.

After announcing the departure of club captain and record appearance maker Lucian Goian to Chennaiyin FC before the 2019–20 season, MCFC brought in Mato Grgic, Serge Kevyn, Amine Chermiti, Diego Carlos, and Mohamed Larbi to replace the departing captain as well as Arnold Issoko, who recorded the highest amount of assists in the league during the 2018/19 season. Jorge Costa was retained as coach for the new season, with the first game of the 2019–20 season resulting in a 1–0 win over Kerala Blasters. There were ups and downs for Jorge Costa's team but injuries to the mainstays of the team hamper MCFC's good run. but in the end, they fell short of the final playoff spot by three points. Mumbai City finished fifth on the table, three points below Chennaiyin FC but coach Coasta still managed to keep Mumbai competitive despite suffering from injury issues to some of his key players. looking back at the records the Islanders had registered a record statistic as they had 12 players on the scoresheet who had scored the team's total of 15 goals. Costa's Mumbai City had a reputation for being defensively strong and lethal on the counter-attack. With a shrewd game plan on his hand, Costa's teams always churned out results when it mattered most to them. And against big teams in the league, they always turned up. In fact, Costa's Mumbai City is the first team to do a league double over Bengaluru FC in the ISL and they haven't lost to them in two years. It looked good back then but at the end of the season, none of Mumbai City's attackers has recorded a double-digit tally of goals. and after the season got over, The Islanders had parted ways with Portuguese tactician Jorge Costa after two years at the club. Costa departs after making an impact at the club. With Costa leaving behind a legacy of a strong defence.

As of 14 April 2020[26][27]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Amrinder Singh (captain) 2 DF Mohammad Rakip 3 DF Anwar Ali 4 DF Tondonba Singh 5 MF Ahmed Jahouh 6 MF Mehtab Singh 11 MF Raynier Fernandes 12 MF Bidyananda Singh 14 MF Rowllin Borges 15 MF Sourav Das 16 DF Sarthak Golui 17 FW Farukh Choudhary 23 FW Alen Deory

No. Position Player 25 DF Mourtada Fall 27 MF Surchandra Singh 29 MF Bipin Singh 30 GK Kunal Sawant 32 DF Davinder Singh 71 DF Mandar Rao Dessai – GK Phurba Lachenpa – FW Vikram Pratap Singh

As of Match played until 28 March 2019

Name	Nationality	From	To	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Win%
Peter Reid	England	4 September 2014[30]	2014	14	4	4	6	12	21	028.57
Nicolas Anelka	France	3 July 2015[31]	2015	14	4	4	6	16	26	028.57
Alexandre Guimarães	Costa Rica	19 April 2016[32]	2018	34	13	8	13	43	37	038.24
Jorge Costa	Portugal	14 August 2018	2020	38	17	8	13	25	26	044.74