Hero Indian Super League (ISL) 2017-18 was one of the biggest and most successful seasons yet as 10 teams battled it out against each other over four months. Chennaiyin FC emerged as the eventual champions after edging past Bengaluru FC 3-2 in the final to add a second league title to their trophy cabinet in three seasons. The recently concluded season also witnessed a plethora of new records being achieved. Here we have a look at some of the biggest accomplishments from the season gone by and why the Hero ISL is considered one of the best sporting spectacles in the country. 

• It took just 38 matches to reach the 100-goal mark this season, the fastest ever in league history. The milestone goal was scored by Kerala Blasters FC’s former striker Mark Sifneos.
• Ferran Corominas took the Hero ISL by storm with stupendous displays of attacking football. He became the first player ever to score back-to-back hat-tricks and ended the season with a remarkable tally of 18 goals to his name, another record for most goals by a player in a single campaign.
• Jamshedpur FC’s wunderkind Jerry Mawihmingthanga wrote his name into the history books by scoring the fastest goal in league history at 22.6 seconds against Kerala Blasters. By doing so, he broke Chris Dagnall’s previous record of 29 seconds.
• With teams acclimatizing to conditions and finding their match rhythm as the league progressed, the tenth match week of the season saw a crescendo of sorts as Indian players netted a record 12 times in a single week – the most ever.
• NorthEast United FC had an abysmal 2017-18 season with almost nothing going right for them throughout, but one player that stood out was Seiminlen Doungel. In a match against eventual champions Chennaiyin, the 24-year old became the first player to ever score a hat-trick for the Highlanders. This was also the first time that the current title-holders conceded a hat-trick.
• Iain Hume has been one of the most influential players in Hero ISL, but in the recently concluded season, injuries ensured we didn’t get to witness the best of the talismanic Canadian. Nonetheless, he ended the campaign with more feathers to his cap after becoming the first player to score three hat-tricks in the league. He is also the first player to net a hat-trick for Kerala Blasters.
• For the first time in league history, two players switched teams in the middle of the season and even scored for two different clubs in the same campaign. The players were FC Goa’s Mark Sifneos who joined Kerala Blasters mid-season and Delhi Dynamos’ Manuel Arana, who had initially signed for FC Goa.