Kerala Blasters FC Reserves and Academy

On 20 February 2018, it was announced by the All India Football Federation, the organising body for Indian football, that the Kerala Blasters along with six other Indian Super League sides would field a reserve team in the I-League 2nd Division, India's then second division football league.[1]

The first ever competitive match for the reserves was against Ozone FC on 16 March 2018 in which they suffered a defeat.[2] But they managed to become the table toppers of Group B by winning seven games from ten matches.[3] However, as per the rules, reserve teams of the clubs were not eligible for advancing into the final round. In the same year itself, the side also started to participate in the Kerala Premier League, which is the top division league for the clubs from Kerala.[4] During their first season in KPL, they finished the group stage in third place, thus missing the play-offs.

In 2018-19 ,they finished in third place of the group.[5] In KPL they became the semi-finalists during the 2018-19 season.

They won the 2019-2020 season of Kerala Premier League after defeating the reserve side of their rivals Gokulam Kerala FC in a penalty shootout.[6] In the I-League 2nd Division, they finished the season in fifth place.

In January 2021, the club appointed T. G. Purushothaman as their new head coach, replacing Renjith TA and Shameel Chembakath.[7]

As of 18 April 2021

Note: Reserve clubs are not promoted nor allowed to play in playoffs of I-League 2nd Division

Season	I-League 2nd Division								Top Scorer
	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Position	Player	Goals
2017–18	10	7	0	3	25	17	21	1st (Group B)	Shaiborlang Kharpan	8
2018–19	8	2	2	4	8	13	8	3rd (Group B)	Pragyan Gogoi	3
2019–20	7	1	2	4	8	14	5	5th (Group C)	Ronaldo Oliveira	4

Season	Kerala Premier League									Top Scorer
	P	W	D	L	GF	GA	Pts	Position	Playoffs	Player	Goals
2017–18	8	5	0	3	27	10	15	3rd (Group A)	DNQ	Shaiborlang Kharpan	8
2018–19	7	4	1	2	10	9	12	2nd (Group A)	Semi-finalists	Jithin M.S.	3
2019–20	8	3	2	3	13	10	11	2nd (Group A)	Champions	Shaiborlang Kharpan	4
2020–21	5	2	1	2	8	9	7	4th (Group B)	DNQ	Nihal Sudheesh Sreekkuttan V.S.	2

In association with the Kerala Football Association, the Kerala Blasters announced the opening of 25 football schools throughout Kerala.[11] In addition to the schools, the club announced that they would also hold weekend grassroots leagues for the children of under-10 to under-16 and the start of a residential academy in the future.[11] The first Kerala Blasters Football School was inaugurated on 11 August 2015 at Dr. Ambedkar Stadium Kochi after 15 months which the club was founded.[12] Later, three more schools were opened in Thiruvananthapuram, Kozhikode and Thrissur as a part of the club's new youth academy system. Former Irish International Terry Phelan was appointed as the head of the grassroots.[13] In 2017, Thangboi Singto was appointed as the technical director of the youth.[14] In the same year itself, their U-18 and U-15 teams began to participate in the Elite League and Juniors League respectively. The U-18 team became the runners up of the 2017–18 Youth League in their first ever appearance while the U-15 side managed to reach the play-offs. In 2018, the U-13 side started to participate in the Sub-Juniors League.[15]

In 2019, Blasters rejuvenated their youth system. They launched the KB Young Blasters and appointed Mario Marinică as the technical director of the youth.[16] As a part of this, a residential academy was also launched for the first time in club's history.[17] The Blasters also announced that they will launch India's first ever goalkeeping academy in Kochi headed by John Burridge.[18][19] As a part of KB Young Blasters, the club also started the Young Ambassador Program in September 2020. It focus on the promising youngsters from the club's Young Blasters centers across Kerala to make them oriented, trained and equipped with adequate skill and technique, to be the face and voice of the club in the future.[20]

On 16 October 2020, the Blasters announced a five-year partnership agreement with "Sporthood", which is a network of sports centres. The Young Blasters program is now termed as "Young Blasters – Sporthood Academy", that imparts a Kerala Blasters verified performance training curriculum to kids, reviewed and audited by the club's experts from time to time.[21] On 16 January 2021, the club announced the association of "FC Imphal City", the first academy from Manipur to play in the Hero Indian Elite League with the Young Blasters – Sporthood Academy.[22] This was the first time that the Blasters expanded their grassroot system outside of Kerala.[23] In February 2021, the club's senior team assistant manager Tomasz Tchórz took over as the Technical advisor/director role at the Blasters.

The Kerala Blasters Under-18 team play in the Elite League. They are also the second reserve team of the club or the Kerala Blasters C. The team's best performance came in 2018 as they finished finalists in the 2017–18 season of the league. Best performers in the side are promoted to the Kerala Blasters Reserves squad.

Source: [27] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  IND Shifas KF — DF  IND Ibnu Shaharath — DF  IND Muhammed Jiyad — DF  IND Lalramenpuia Ralte — DF  IND Abdul Badish — DF  IND Naorem Nanao — DF  IND Phujam Sanathoi — DF  IND Athul Ganesh — MF  IND L Doungel — MF  IND Yunus Shaikh

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  IND Sanoop C — MF  IND Jose Praveen — MF  IND Abdul Raheeb — MF  IND Mohammed Azhar — MF  IND Abdul Raheeb — MF  IND Zayed Bin Waled — MF  IND Akash Ravi — FW  IND Nihal Sudeesh — GK  IND Ashish Umesh

Elite Youth League U18 statistics of Kerala Blasters U18

Kerala Blasters Under-15 side participates in the Hero Juniors League (Elite U15) and Kerala U15 Academy League. The U15 side has young kids filtered from all of Kerala and around other states of India. The Young Blasters had a tremendous run in 2018–19 season of the Elite U15 League (Juniors League) when they made it to the semi-finals of the competition. The U15 Blasters team was coached by Shameel Chembakath from the beginning. He left the team in 2020.

Source: [28] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — DF  IND Vasudev M — DF  IND Mohammee Ziyad — MF  IND Joshua K Denny — MF  IND MK Ansari — MF  IND Pranay Dhamal — MF  IND Adityan A — MF  IND Faris Ali — MF  IND Muhammed Mahin

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  IND Al Shameem — MF  IND Naeef Rahman — MF  IND Muhammed Faris — FW  IND Muhammed Akhthar — FW  IND Lian Thangkhum — FW  IND Athul K — FW  IND Safar K

Hero Juniors League statistics of Kerala Blasters U15

The Under-13 side of Blasters Play in the Hero Sub-juniors League (Elite U13). The U-13 Side has a Promising youngsters mainly from the state of Kerala and also other parts of India selected from Kerala Blasters Summer Football Camps.

Source: [29] Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player — GK  IND Sharon J — GK  IND Saviyol Varghese — GK  IND Navaneeth MS — DF  IND Harish Chandra — DF  IND Muhammed Mifraah — DF  IND Adam Jose — DF  IND Said Hydrose — MF  IND Roshan B — MF  IND Shreyas Lal

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  IND Abhiram A — MF  IND Jithin Reji — FW  IND Abdul Akmal — FW  IND Suryadas P — FW  IND Nilan Shijil — FW  IND Ashwarath S Nath — FW  IND Athul K Chandran — FW  IND Adhil Ashref

Hero Sub-Juniors League statistics of Kerala Blasters U13

• Kerala Premier League

Winners (1): 2019–20

• Elite League (Youth League U18)

Runners-up (1): 2017–18