In their quest to regain the Santosh Trophy, a hopeful Kerala led by ace midfielder NP Pradeep will take the field at the Nehru Stadium in Coimbatore on Tuesday
The five-time winners, originally scheduled to play Nagaland in their opener on May 24, will begin their campaign in the 63rd edition of the national football championship against Chandigarh at 4:00 pm today after the North Eastern state withdrew from the tournament. Chattisgarh is the other team in Cluster I.
Kerala, the favourites to move up from the group, are drawn to play the winners of Cluster II consisting of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh and Meghalaya in the pre-quarterfinals on May 31 should they qualify. The young team coached by former India goalkeper KP Sethumadhavan play their final group match against Chattisgarh on Thursday.
Considered one of the most stylish teams in the country, the short passing Kerala stumbled in the quarterfinal league last year in Jammu and Kashmir. The state last won the tournament in 2004 under Sylvester Ignatius at New Delhi.
Goalkeepers |
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KT Navas 28 Titanium Malapuram |
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Ranjith RA 26 Malabar United Trivandrum |
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Jinesh Thomas 29 Cochin Port Trust Ernakulam |
Defenders |
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Jaseer Karnath 34 Malabar UnitedMalapuram |
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Jithesh CK 31 Malabar United Ernakulam |
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Justine Stephen21 Mahindra United Kottayam |
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Bijesh Ben 28 Central Excise Trivandrum |
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Abdul Bhasith 22 Faroque College Kozhikode |
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Dhanarajan R 29 Chirag United Palakkad |
Midfielders |
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NP Pradeep 25 Mahindra United Idukki |
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Sushanth Matheew 27 Mahindra United Wyanad |
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Martin John 25 State Bank of Travancore Trivandrum |
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Sakeer MP 23 Viva Kerala Malapuram |
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Rahul P 23 Viva Kerala Kozhikode |
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Renil CJ 23 Viva Kerala Thrissur |
Forwards |
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Bineesh Balan 19 Churchill Brothers Thrissur |
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Zubair KP 30 Chandni FC Malapuram |
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Shibin Lal VK 19 Viva Kerala Kozhikode |
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Jacken Sebastian 26 Malabar United Trivandrum |
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Firoz K 24 Evergreen Manjeri Malapuram |
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From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 26 May 2009, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.