Harpal Singh Bedi / New Delhi
Football Delhi honoured striker Ayush Adhikari and defender Dalima Chibber for their scintillating performances in the year 2018-19 at a glittering Award night here on Monday,
Ayush Adhikari, who displayed his sheer talent in the Santosh Trophy by top-scoring with 6 goals, was bestowed upon the Best Player (Male) award while. Indian National team player and defender Dalima Chibber was adjudged the Best female player
India’s U-16 national player Rudransh Singh was chosen as the Best Youth Player (Male) while national U-17 Vice-Captain Aveka Singh got the Best Youth Player (Female) award for the season.
AFC A License holder and AIFF Coach and Education Instructor Paritosh Sharma was selected as the Best Coach (Male) for helping Delhi qualify for the Santosh Trophy Final Round after a gap of five years and Ms. Disha Malhotra, was bestowed with the Best Coach (Female) award for 2018-19.
Ex-International players, Aziz Quraishi and Surender Kumar were given the Football Delhi Diamond Award while Tarun Roy, Santosh Kashyap and Bhupinder Thakur were honoured with the Football Delhi Gold Award.
Journalists, without whose support the coverage of the sport will be incomplete, too were recognized for their immense help with Kewal Kaushik of The Times of India getting the Journalist (Lifetime Award).
“It is an incredible feeling to see the efforts of all the footballers being recognised. Such awards and events motivate us. The best thing is even the people behave behind the scenes are getting the recognition that they deserve.” Dalima opined.
The ceremony was attended by among others AIFF General Secretary, Kushal Das; Hindustan Zinc CEO, Sunil Duggal; Reliance Industries VP, Priti Srivastava; Ex-Chief Election Commissioner, SY Quareshi, and the Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Spain,. Eduardo Sanchez Moreno.
“I started playing football because my father was also a footballer and it has my entire family’s dream to see me doing well in the sport. This award will provide me all the inspiration needed to work harder and make both my family and India proud in the future,” Adhikari said after receiving the award.
“With India playing the FIFA U-17 Women’s World Cup, this award is a huge source of motivation for me and I hope I can inspire many other girls to take up football and I hope to see each one of you coming out to support us as we play the World Cup, the biggest football extravaganza next year,” Aveka Singh said.
While every match is incomplete without the Coaches contribution and hence top honours for the coaches too were given for their contribution towards the Sport and helping it to grow.
For the Best Football Developmental Project, NDMC U-10 Girls Development Programme was honoured while JSW & COSCO received the Outstanding Contribution (Corporates) award.
“This award will go a long way to inspire others as we have ensure a sustainable support system is created at the grassroot space and more and more youngsters can join the game and engage in the football revolution as we have created in Rajasthan,” said Mr. Sunil Duggal, CEO of Hindustan Zinc.
Football Delhi Chief Shahji Prabhakaran expressed gratitude for stakeholders in helping Football Delhi achieve some of the goals they have set.
“I am thankful to all the stakeholders who have been relentlessly supporting Football Delhi in its journey since its inception. I hope more corporates will come forward to help Delhi become a rich football capital,” he said.
Among the educational institutions recognized for their tireless contributions to the sport were Modern School, Barakhamba Road and Vasant Valley, Vasant Kunj, which got the Best school in football (men) and Best school in football (women) awards respectively. Zakir Hussain Delhi College and Janki Devi Mahavidyala were chosen as the Best College in football (men) and Best College in football (women) respectively.