2023 was a truly memorable year for Indian sport. With so much having happened, ESPN India picks ten images that tell the story of the most stunning moments we witnessed over the year. Our sixth pick is Kerala Blasters head coach Ivan Vukomanovic leading his team off the pitch.
Picture this: you're in a knockout game at the home of your arch-rivals. You go behind with almost 25 minutes left to play. You don't play those because you've decided enough is enough; the injustice has gotten too much. So, your arch-rivals knock you out of a competition you're desperate to win and yet, after all that, the overriding emotion amongst your fans is of overwhelming support.
These things are not common in football. Walking out of a knockout game and being treated as a hero for it. But that is what Ivan Vukomanovic managed to achieve in March, when he led his Kerala Blasters side off the pitch during their ISL knockout match against Bengaluru FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium.
Sunil Chhetri had taken a quick freekick, taking advantage of a split second that Adrian Luna turned his back on him, Prabhsukhan Gill was off his line, the ball looped past him. Chhetri had his arms aloft, the Kanteerava exploded, the Bengaluru FC players just couldn't get enough of their captain. 1-0 Bengaluru.
Gill and Rahul KP had animated discussions with referee Crystal John. Then Luna did too, then he took the ball and placed it on the centre circle. "We go again," the captain seemed to suggest. They weren't going anywhere other than the dressing room. Vukomanovic, in his trademark white shirt, strode on to the pitch, gestured that he was having none of it, and called his players off the field. They stood near the tunnel for a few minutes and then went back into their dressing room. By the time they emerged, Bengaluru were celebrating a spot in the ISL semifinal.
When Vukomanovic was boarding the team bus, he was serenaded by the hundreds of Blasters fans. They were defiant, they were waiting there to show their support for an unprecedented decision -- one that, at many other clubs, might have cost the manager his job. Not at this Kerala Blasters.
Ever since Vukomanovic took over at the start of the 2021-22 season, he has been the beating heart of the Kerala Blasters. The man they all call "Aashaan" (master) cannot have been wrong, he always only always had the best interests of the club in his mind.
Why then did he decide to take them off the pitch without even giving his team a chance to make a comeback? Someone had to do it, the fans say. The refereeing in the league had been questionable for too long. Someone had to take a stand against it. Who better than the man at the helm of the league's most boisterously supported club?
That backing from the fans is why even after being directed by the AIFF to tender a public apology, Vukomanovic could afford to issue one that really wasn't.
He was eventually banned for ten games for his part in the incident, but now he's back. He's back on the touchline, the chants of "Ivaaan, Ivaaaan" at the Kaloor Stadium are ear-splitting. He's even more the apple of their eyes now than he ever was.
Everything about the walkout was unprecedented, but perhaps the most surprising outcome from it has been how the Blasters faithful have rallied behind their Aashaan.