Mumbai District defender Shravan Shetty has been appointed captain of the Maharashtra team that will be participating in the 76th National Football Championship for the AIFF Hero Santosh Trophy 2022-23 to be held at Kolhapur from 7th to 15th January, 2022.
The Maharashtra Football players pose with the Head Coach Steven Dias (centre) and support staff before their departure to Kolhapur.
The Maharashtra team was finalized after a 3-week coaching-cum-selection camp for the probables picked from the inter-district tournament conducted in the second week of December.
Nagpur District midfielder Sufiyan Shaikh is named as the vice-captain of the squad which will be guided by Head Coach Steven Dias and Assistant Coach Ryan D’Souza both of Mumbai District. K.R. Ansari of Nanded District will accompany the team as Manager, while Physio Jai Kailas Joshi will take care of the fitness of the players.
Hosts Maharashtra has been clubbed with Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Daman & Dadra, Haryana and West Bengal in Group-IV and they open their campaign against Madhya Pradesh on Saturday.
Maharashtra will play matches every alternate day till January 15. Their second match will be against Chhattisgarh, followed by matches against Daman & Dadra, Haryana and West Bengal.
The team: Indrajeet Chougule, Omkar Suresh Patil, Pavan Vijay Mali, Rushikesh Methe-Patil, Yash Namdev Devane (all Kolhapur); Arif Shaikh, Armash Nasir Ansari, Ashley Alban Koli, Himanshu Patil, Johnson Mathews, Kaustubh Ravindra, Shravan Shetty (Captain), Tejas Raut, Vishnu Menon, Yasheel Shah (all Mumbai); Sheikh Aabid, Sufiyan Shaikh (Vice-Captain), Stanley Peter (all Nagpur); Khaled Khan (Nanded); Jeevansingh Rawat, Shivam Kiran Pednekar, Sumit Bhandari (all Pune).
Manager: K.R. Ansari (Nanded).
Head coach: Steven Dias (Mumbai).
Assistant coach: Ryan D’Souza (Mumbai).
Physio: Jai Kailas Joshi (Mumbai).
The schedule:
Jan 07: Maharashtra Vs Madhya Pradesh
Jan 09: Maharashtra Vs Chhattisgarh
Jan 11: Maharashtra Vs Daman & Dadra
Jan 13: Maharashtra Vs Haryana
Jan 15: Maharashtra Vs West Bengal.