Indian under-16 national football team defeated hosts Nepal 1-0 in the final of the SAFF Under-16 Championship 2013 at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu on Wednesday to the lift the second edition of the South Asian football tournament.
14-year old left-back Jerry Lalrinzuala from Mizoram scored a left-footed long ranger in the 18th minute, the sole goal of the game to clinch the title by winning every game in the biennial tournament. Latching on to a loose ball just outside the 18-yard box, Jerry unleashed a short from 30-yards out which crashed into the top corner of the net.
Indian boys, selected from AIFF’s regional academies, fought the odds of a rain-soaked pitch and a partisan crowd at the stadium to win the tournament in emphatic fashion.
Jerry almost doubled his tally ten minutes into the second half when his free-kick from outside the box went inches wide and then in the 66th minute, midfielder Deependra Singh Negi’s attempt from close was fisted away by the Nepal custodian.
“The triumph shows that we are on the tight track. It all began from scratch when we roped in talented boys from all parts of the Country,” Head Coach Gautam Ghosh was quoted by the AIFF’s official website.
“Right from day one Robert Baan and Scott O’Donell showed us the path to tread on and they have continuously monitored our progress. I reiterate that ours is a Developmental Process and results don’t matter,” he added.
“But having said that, this was a Final and a positive result would always have an inspirational effect on the boys. I’m proud of them the manner they held on in front of a 20000 plus partisan crowd,” he pronounced.
“The message from National Coach Wim Koevermans and National Team Captain Sunil Chhetri had a huge influence on the boys. We all look up to them and a message from them to the U-15 kids meant a lot. We are happy that we have been to keep everyone smiling,” he maintained.
The Under-16 boys that won the SAFF Championship 2013:
Goalkeepers: Anuj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Subrata Das (West Bengal), M Dheeraj Singh (Manipur)
Defenders: M Jayananda Singh (Manipur), Jerry Lalrinzuala (Mizoram), T Kishan Singh (Manipur), Prosenjit Chakraborty (West Bengal), Amit Tudu (West Bengal), Nuruddin (Uttar Pradesh), Amey Ranawade (Maharashtra)
Midfielders: Bodo Baoringdao (Assam), Kyntiew Kharlukhi (Meghalaya), Surya Tirkey (Jharkhand), Zonunmawia (Mizoram), Anirudh Thapa (Uttarakhand), Deependra Singh Negi (Uttarakhand), Aaron Rodrigues (Goa), Chanmitre Thma (Meghalaya)
Forwards: Laishram Bedashwor Singh (Manipur), Sourav Chakraborty (West Bengal), Edmund Lalrindika (Mizoram), Krishna Pandit (Chandigarh), Mohammed Hasil (Kerala)
Head Coach: Goutam Ghosh
Assistant Coach: John Kenneth Raj
Goalkeeper Coach: Feroz Sheriiff
Physiotherapist: Somya Rout
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Tuesday 30 July 2013. The database copy of this article was lost; it was recovered in 2026 from the Internet Archive's saved copy of the live page.