Denson Devadas won the best footballer of the year award presented by the Calcutta Sports Journalists’ Club during its annual awards function held on Friday at Kolkata.
The 27 year old midfielder from Kannur serves as the captain of Chirag United, the new force in Kolkata football. He has been in fine form this season and was expected by many to receive a call from the National team coach Bob Houghton. "I would be extremely honored if I am asked to wear the Indian jerseys. I am yet to be called for the duty, but I am sure it will happen one day," he said to footballkerala.com.
However, Denson expressed his joy in being presented with such a prestigious award by beating many of the bests in Indian football scenario. He is in fact the only South Indian to win this award after the legendary IM Vijayan.
"It's wonderful to come and play at the capital of Indian football and be selected as the best footballer there. I am more happy that I am the only person who did it other than IM Vijayan - a person I very much respected in my childhood," Denson told.
Denson's Chirag United are placed in sixth position in I-League table with 3 matches to go and Denson hopes to improve their position before the league finishes. Meanwhile, Chirag are leading the pack in the Kolkata League with 33 points and 2 matches to go. Mohun Bagan are also with 33 points, while Chirag have a better goal difference. They will play each other in the last match at Kolkata that may decide the champions of Kolkata.
The awards are given away in all team and individual sports events. Pankaj Advani, who won the world professional billiards champion last year, was adjudged the best sportsperson of the year while the former world youth (under-12) chess champion Sayantan Das was given the best junior sportsperson of the year award. Manoj Tiwary won the player of the year award in Cricket. He is the batsman of the IPL (Indian Premier League) team, Kolkata Knight Riders.
The awardees in various sports were:
Football: Denson Devadas Cricket: Manoj Tiwary
Tennis: Rupesh Roy
Table tennis: Soumyajit Ghosh
Swimming: Bikram Mondal
Badminton: Sheshadri Sanyal
Basketball: Satyendra Singh
Kabaddi: Abdus Salam Gazi
Hockey: Leo Bilung
Gymnastics: Gobinda Pramanik
Athletics (men): Sheikh Mortaza
Athletics (women): Jhuma Khatun
Chess: Saptarshi Roy Choudhury
Adwaidh R writes for footballkerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Thursday 29 April 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.