Indumathi receives her award.
Indumathi Kathiresan and Lallianzuala Chhangte took home top honours while Khalid Jamil was recognised for his coaching credentials as the All India Football Federation (AIFF) held its annual awards after a gap of seven years on Friday night.
Apart from Chhangte and Indumathi, the other individual award winners were Khalid Jamil (Best Men’s Coach), Sukla Dutta (Best Women’s Coach), David Lalhlansanga (Promising Men’s Player), Neha (Promising Women’s Player), Ramachandran Venkatesh (Best Referee) and Ujjal Halder (Best Assistant Referee).
The 30-year old Indumathi, named the Women’s Player of the Year, is the first from Tamil Nadu to win the award. With back-to-back Indian Women’s League titles with different clubs — Gokulam FC and Odisha FC — the midfielder has been key to the national team’s performances as well over the past few years.
“I honestly didn’t expect to win it but I would like to thank my coach and teammates for this,” she said.
On a roll
Chhangte became only the fifth player to win the top award more than once after being named Player of the Year for the second straight time. The 2023-24 ISL winner scored 11 goals with assists for Mumbai City FC and was the highest scoring Indian in the ISL, besides scoring against Qatar during the FIFA World Cup Qualifiers in June.
Lalhlansanga and 18-year old Neha were named promising players of the year respectively while Jamil was recognised for leading Jamshedpur FC to its first-ever semifinal at the Kalinga Super Cup despite taking charge of the club only mid-season.
Dutta, who guided India to the SAFF Under-19 Championship title and helped Sreebhumi FC earn promotion to the IWL, was named the Women’s Coach of the Year.
The event was attended by Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and all AIFF officials among others.
List of awardees: Player of the Year: Men: Lallianzuala Chhangte; Women: Indumathi Kathiresan.
Promising Player of the Year: Men: David Lalhlansanga; Women: Neha.
Coach of the Year: Men: Khalid Jamil; Women: Sukla Dutta.
Referee of the Year: Ramachandran Venkatesh; Assistant Referee of the Year: Ujjal Halder.
Khalid Jamil with his award.
