Who has scored the most goals in a single Indian Super League season?
Who has the most goal contributions in a single ISL season?
Who is NorthEast United's all-time top-scorer?
Who is ESPN's ISL Player of the Season?
One Alaaeddine Ajaraie. There were no magic lamps needed for this one to perform in an otherworldly manner.
The Moroccan has been in India one season now. He had scored 29 league goals in 123 appearances (0.23 gpg) prior to coming to India. This season, he scored 23 goals in 25 games (0.92 gpg, a 400% increase), and assisted a further seven. Without a shadow of a doubt, it has been the greatest individual season the ISL has seen, and when that is the case, why should there have been a debate over our ISL Player of the Season?
NorthEast's has been a season of resurgence, and just continued progress under Juan Pedro Benali. It began sensationally even before the ISL season began, with their first ever trophy at the Durand Cup. Ajaraie was central to that, and there was a sense that he could develop into one of their most important players through the season, if they were to make the playoffs or even beyond.
However, when the ISL season began, Ajaraie's start was one from beyond the wildest of dreams. He scored in each of their first eight league matches. He scored twice in three of those eight games. He assisted a further four. 11 goals and 4 assists in a whole season qualifies as a good return in the ISL. Ajaraie had it in eight games. For context, the ISL final match-winner Jamie Maclaren finished the season with 12 goals and 2 assists, one direct goal return less than Ajaraie managed in the first eight games alone.
Now that was a dream run that was always going to stop at some point. Ajaraie had no returns in three straight games after the first eight, but normal service was soon to resume.
He played across positions in the frontline - largely on the left wing and sometimes as the central striker. He scored various types of goals. Strikes from long range, headers from close range, one-on-one finishes, poaching in the six-yard box, Ajaraie was the perfect forward player all season.
You know the inevitability of a goal-scoring action when Arjen Robben cut back on to his left foot from the right wing? What we witnessed from Ajaraie all season was as close as we'd get to that in the ISL. And it was from both wings.
Take the game against FC Goa in October that NorthEast ended up drawing 3-3. They were 2-1 down, then Ajaraie got the ball on the left, cut in, kept the ball on a string tied to his right foot, teased Boris Singh, and then poked a pass through to Nestor Albiach for him to score. Then a few minutes later, he found himself on the right wing, ran in behind the defence at speed, and then cut the ball onto his left foot before curling one into the far post.
Alaeddine works his magic for #NEUFC yet again!��
Catch the thrilling finish to #FCGNEU LIVE on #JioCinema and #Sports18-3! ��#ISLonJioCinema #ISLonSports18 #JioCinemaSports #LetsFootball pic.twitter.com/FObxoQ4qxB
- JioCinema (@JioCinema) October 4, 2024
A few weeks later against Jamshedpur, he unleashed a curler from the left wing that beat Albino Gomes for both power and placement and curve. The ball ended up in the side netting.
A few weeks later against Bengaluru FC at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, Ajaraie opened the scoring with a thunderous strike into the top corner with his right foot after cutting in from the left. This was a player clearly at the peak of his powers.
He showed his speed to make runs in behind, and demanded passes into him from the likes of Macarton Nickson and Mohammed Bemmammer. He showed close control when defenders were around him to create space for shots with either foot. And when he took those shots, they were powerful.
Ajaraie thrived on volume. Benali set his side up to create chances for their main man. He had 103 shots all season, 47 were on target, 23 were goals. Hitting the target with almost half your shots and then scoring with almost half those shots on target is a conversion rate that is bordering on the absurd. And that was Ajaraie's season, not just bordering on absurd, but surpassing it.
Here was a player comfortable with both feet, quick enough to make runs in behind, then good enough to cast a spell on the ball and defenders alike with his close control, and a serious finisher. How could anyone stop him?
Prior to this season, the best individual goal return in a single ISL season was 18, achieved by both Ferran Corominas and Bart Ogbeche. Joining those names in the list of ISL royalty this season was Ajaraie. How on earth, then, did NorthEast not even make the semifinals?
Ajaraie scored half of NorthEast's ISL goals this season, and assisted almost a third of the goals that he didn't score, so there was definitely an over-dependence on him to either create chances or be on the end of them. Jithin MS's season started off in incredible fashion, but slowed down later, Parthib Gogoi never really found consistency all season, while Nestor Albiach and Guillermo Fernandez managed six and five goals respectively, and provided a good foil to Ajaraie.
However, while those numbers from Albiach and Fernandez are acceptable from members of the support cast, the question always remained if they could step up on an Ajaraie off-day. Unfortunately for NorthEast, that Ajaraie off-day came on the worst of days, in their knockout playoff against Jamshedpur FC in Shillong.
He had his chances. On most other days all season, he might have scored twice. He hit the post once and then missed an easier chance on the rebound. NorthEast had 21 shots in that game against Jamshedpur, but only three of those were on target. It was, quite simply, a microcosm of their entire season. They very soon evolved into a team that was Ajaraie or bust.
That bust scenario happened on the biggest day of their season, but that they were in the playoffs was down to the bust scenario never really happening throughout the course of the greatest individual season produced by any player in the ISL.
NorthEast have reportedly already triggered a one-year extension to his contract, so now Ajaraie has new benchmarks to match or attempt to beat. Like Lallianzuala Chhangte in the two seasons before this, Ajaraie also has our player of the season award to defend in 2025-26.