The Hindu : Sport / Football : Manipur players add flavour to AI squad

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Sunday, Jan 07, 2007
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Manipur players add flavour to AI squad

Special Correspondent

MUMBAI: A bunch of hardy players from Manipur will provide the pace and power to Air-India's National Football League 2007 campaign, commencing on Sunday against East Bengal in Mumbai.

Samson Singh, Napoleon Singh, Uttam Singh, Narendra Meetei and U. Thomte are the players from the North-East in the team, all hand-picked by coach Bimal Ghosh.

Manipur football is under the spotlight after international Surkumar Singh's nomination as `Football of the Year' for the 2006 season by the All India Football Federation.

Surprise packet

Uttam Singh is the surprise packet due to his throwing ability. Uttam has the ability of long throw-ins from the sidelines into the goalmouth.

Samson, Thomte, Napolean and Meetei possess the speed and thrust to attack at every opportunity, teaming up with Nigerians Bashiru Abbas and A.K. Martin who contribute the foreign flavour. Suleh Musah, the third foreigner, will join the squad later, according to the AI coach.

Home talent

Ghosh is also placing a lot of trust on home talent, among whom Mumbai-based Paresh Shivalkar is the spearhead in the forward-line, apart from Vijith Shetty, Binoy Kuruvilla and Javed Ansari playing vital roles.

The Mumbai side has not beaten East Bengal before in NFL and coach Ghosh believes his side can pick up three points against the Kolkata team.

"We will go for a win, this is the best chance to stretch East Bengal, a team which is still to settle down," he said.

Air-India has been the grooming and finishing school for other Manipur footballers like Tomba Singh, Bungo Singh, James Singh and Raju Singh to name a few.

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