Carl McHugh still on cloud nine after Mohun Bagan Indian Super League title win

Carl McHugh says the scenes that greeted Mohun Bagan’s Indian Super League title success were like nothing he’s ever witnessed in sport.

The Leitirmacaward man picked up his second title medal with the club following their dramatic 4-3 penalty shootout win over Bengaluru last Saturday.

Mohun Bagan also needed spot kicks to overcome Hyderbad in their semi-final tussle so there is no doubt in the former Dungloe Town FC underage star’s mind that his team's name was on this title.

With the Indian Super Cup group stages pencilled in to begin on April 10 there is still a real chance that Mohun Bagan could be celebrating an historic double in the next number of weeks.

The view from the Mohun Bagan bus as it makes its way through the streets.  

Regardless, McHugh says as soon as the curtain does come down on the side’s season, he’ll be looking forward to getting straight back home to Donegal to see friends and family.

“What we’ve coming up, it’s the equivalent to the FA Cup over here,” he told Donegal Live. “So home will have to wait a little while longer. There is a group stage with semi-finals and final. So I’ll probably be looking at some time in early May.

“I’ll get six weeks or so then. So that’s something I’m really looking forward to. I was home for a few days around New Year but it flew in. Sometimes there are sacrifices to be made when you’re this far away from home.

“Family and friends really is the big one. Nicole, my sister, and husband Anthony (Thompson) had baby Holly last year so I’m an uncle now as well. But I wasn’t home for that. I’m 30 now but I’ve probably been away since I was 16. I’ve two years left on my contract here and I love it.

“In many ways you become used to it but there are parts of it that are still very hard. But I count my blessings. I know how lucky I’ve been in that time as well”.

In regards to the manner in which Mohun Bagan clawed their way to the ISL championship, McHugh explains that his team just about secured a play-off berth and vital top four position with a hard earned 2-1 win over Kerala Blasters.

“It came together nicely for us in the end,” he explained. “We’d a bad run coming into the play-offs. We were 1-0 down against Kerala - a game we needed to win to even make the play-offs but we pulled it around.

“It was such a great end to the season. It was a really tough campaign but we got our reward in the end”.

At previous club Motherwell McHugh, as captain, lost Scottish FA and League Cups to Celtic in the same 2017/18 season.

At Bradford, the player suffered a 5-0 thrashing by Swansea in the 2013 Football League Cup final and also came out on the wrong end of the 2016 League Two Play-off decider against Wimbledon.

“In my first season I got injured quite early on and even though we won it I kinda felt on the periphery of all of that. It’s just not the same when you’re not in the thick of it. But to have played a real part in all of that this time out, it’s special. Like, I’ve lost a few finals in my day, at previous clubs, so this was really great”.

McHugh explains that the scenes which greeted the team on their arrival back at Kolkata, west Bengal, needed to be seen to be believed.

“It’s massive this win, it means everything to the club. You look around at the supporters, the local players and even the owners here, they’ve taken so much from this. The scenes when we arrived back at the airport, they were completely crazy.

“We’d a brilliant night of celebrating after the final in Goa. But the homecoming, it went to another level. It took us hours to get through the airport alone.

“But seeing how much happiness it brought to so many people on the streets, it hit home just what it means to them”.

In the past the likes of Nicolas Anelka, Alessandro Del Piero, Dimitar Berbatov and Robbie Keane have, in the latter years, all been enticed to spend time in the ISL. In its early years those kind of marquee signings helped put the league on the international map.

But similar to the aftermath of David Beckham’s jumpstarting of the MLS, India has since looked to go a different direction with its overseas recruitment.

“When the league started you'd have players of a certain age profile, mid to late thirties, coming over,” explains McHugh who has Paul Pogba’s brother Florentin Pogba as a teammate at Mohun Bagan.

“But you’ve players now coming from the big leagues in Europe in their late twenties to early thirties.

“Lads that have been in La Liga or top tiers in other countries, they are looking at the ISL now as a real option. It will continue to go from strength to strength. I’m certainly enjoying my experience here”.