Goa's Roberto Fernandes to lead Indian Team

Experienced  stopper - back  Roberto Fernandes of
Salgaocar (Goa) will lead  the Indian team in the
four-nation  Independence Cup football tournament
in Maldives from May 1 to 12, 2000.

The team was announced  by the All India Football
Federation secretary Kedar Nath Mour in New Delhi
on April 5, 2000.

Other than India,  hosts  Maldives, Sri Lanka and
Bangladesh are the other teams  in  the fray. The
tournament  will  be  played on round-robin basis
with the first two teams meeting in the final.

The team,  comprising  mainly junior footballers,
have  new  faces like Mumbai stopper Tapan Ghosh,
Churchill Bros. defender  Anthony  Pereira, Mohun
Bagan  midfielder Rajendra Prasad Singh Mahindras
striker Manjit Singh and State Bank of Travancore
striker Ignatius.  While  Tapan  Ghosh  has  been
picked  up for  his  fine showing in the recently
concluded  National Championship  for the Santosh
Trophy, both RP Singh and Ignatius caught the eye
while  playing for their respective clubs  during
the National Football League.

Among those who have made a kind of comeback into
the  national team, are Air India’s Khalid Jamil,
Churchill’s Roque Baretto and Francis Silveira &
Mahindras’ Abbas Ali Rizvi.
Midfielder Khalid Jamil was a favourite of former
national coach  Syed  Nayeemuddin and last played
for India in  the South Asian Federation Football
(SAFF) championship in 1997.

Baretto was called for the Asia Cup camp in October,
1999 but was released under strange circumstances.
He walked out of  the camp to  play  for Churchill
in the Rovers Cup with the AIFF officials remaining
mute spectators.  Baretto, however, was  a success
story in the NFL like Khalid Jamil,who did well in
the second division NFL and Santosh Trophy.

The federation, as a policy matter, decided to pick
up  a  junior team for the Maldives tournament and
kept out regulars like IM Vijayan, Jo Paul Ancheri
&  Basudev Mondal from the camp. Some players like
Deepak  Mondal,  Ratan Singh  and James Singh have
cried out citing different reasons.

THE TEAM:
Goalkeepers: Prasanto Dora (Bengal) and Virender
Singh (Maharashtra).
Defenders: Falguni Dutta (Bengal), Mahesh Gawli,
Roberto Fernandes (captain) and Anthony  Pereira
(all Goa), Daljit Singh (Punjab) and Tapan Ghosh
(Maharashtra).
Midfielders:  M.  Suresh (Kerala), Jules Alberto
and Roque Baretto (both Goa), Khalid Jamil
(Maharashtra) and Rajendra Prasad Singh (Bengal).
Forwards: Abbas Ali Rizvi, Manjit Singh and Mohd.
Najib (all Maharashtra),Ignatius (Kerala), Bijen
Singh (Bengal), Hardeep Singh (Punjab) & Francis
Silveira (Goa).
Coach: Sukhwinder Singh.

The team, coached  by Sukwinder Singh, will leave
for Maldives from Thrissur (Kerala) on April 28.

Here's wishing Roberto Fernandes and his team
all the very best.