Kerala, led by Rahul V Raj and coached by Satheevan Balan, were worthy champions as they ended their campaign with an unbeaten record. PTIKerala displayed admirable tenacity to prevail over West Bengal in the Santosh Trophy final in Kolkata on Easter Day to end a 14-year title drought.
The victory on penalties in a thrilling title clash was Kerala's sixth in the national football championships.
Kerala, led by Rahul V Raj and coached by Satheevan Balan, were worthy champions as they ended their campaign with an unbeaten record. The fact that Kerala scored 18 goals and conceded only three, two of which came in the final, showed how dominant they were in the competition.
The Kerala defence, led by Rahul and goalkeeper V Mithun, who pulled off a couple of saves in the shootout, did its job with aplomb. V K Afdal, M S Jithin and Rahul K P were in fine goal-scoring form throughout the championships.
Balan deserves special praise for picking a bunch of spirited youngsters and moulding them into a champion outfit. The players displayed tremendous energy and fighting spirit to repay the confidence placed in them.
Team Kerala also broke their shootout jinx in the final as this was the first time in five attempts they came up trumps. They also avenged the defeat at the hands of Bengal in the 1989 and 1994 final. It was all the more sweet since the triumph came at the Salt Lake Stadium against the 32-time champions. Kerala had edged Bengal 1-0 earlier in the group stage.
It is a sort of revival for Kerala football as the state has not produced many top-class players of late. One can only hope that this is just the beginning of a strong comeback by Kerala on the national football scene at a time when sponsors are taking a keen interest in the game in India, a key emerging market for the sport commercially.
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