Herald

Panaji, May 25: Goan football continues to bask in the Santosh Trophy triumph.

Proof of this surfaced at the Goa Football Association’s Awards Nite at Hotel Kenilworth (Utorda) the night before last where Goa’s Santosh heroes got duly rewarded.

Mauricio Afonso who guided Goa to a cherished Santosh Trophy triumph after 15 years was named the Best Coach while Andrew Fernandes, who did most of the running in Kochi, walked away with the Best Manager award.
Most others who were honoured last night received most of the points for their Santosh Trophy performances.

Climax Lawrence and Sharon Fernandes were named as Goa’s best for the season.

While Climax Lawrence won the Most Valuable Player Award Sharon Fernandes was named the Outstanding women player of the year by a three-member panel consisting of Arjuna Awardees Brahmanand Shankwalkar, Bruno Coutinho and GFA vice-president Vinod Parkkot.

In 2005, Climax has been the outstanding for Dempo though a knee injury has kept him off the field for almost five months now.

Sharon Fernandes, on the otherhand, has dominated women’s football in Goa like never before and secured herself a berth in the Indian team.

Sporting Clube de Goa midfielder Nicholas Rodrigues, a player of the tournament at Santosh trophy, was voted the most promising while in the girls section the honour went to Gracy D’Costa of Mangor Sports Club.

Simplicio Cabral was the unanimous choice for the best organizer award while Tivim ground was adjudged as the best venue.

Sporting Clube de Goa who made it to five finals last season and finished runners-up in the Goa Professional League beat off competition from Dempo Sports Club for the Team of the Year honour.

Sporting Clube also had individual awardees in Luis Barretto (best goalkeeper) and Felipe Gomes (best defender).

Mickky Fernandes (Salgaocar Sports Club) sidestepped Sporting’s Bibiano Fernandes as the best midfielder while Vasco Sports Club’s Anthony Pereira was the best striker by quite a mile.

Dempo captain Stanley Colaco, who called it a day early this week, was chosen as the Most Loved footballer by the coaches.

The awards were handed over by Chief Minister Pratapsing Rane in the presence of GFA president Shivanand Salgaocar and secretary Savio Messias.

Sunita compered the function while Savio Messias proposed the vote of thanks.

The Roll of Honour is as follows: Most Valuable Player - Climax Lawrence (Dempo), Outstanding woman footballer - Sharon Fernandes, Best coach - Mauricio Afonso (Santosh Trophy), Team of the Year - Sporting Clube De Goa, Most loved player - Stanley Colaco (Dempo), Most promising player - Nicholas Rodrigues (Sporting Clube), Best striker - Anthony Pereira (Vasco), Best midfielder - Micky Fernandes (Salgaocar), Best defender — Fillipe Gomes (Sporting), Best goalkeeper - Luis Baretto (Sporting), Most promising coach - Matthew D’Costa (Vasco), Most promising woman footballer - Gracy D’Costa, Best manager - Andrew Fernandes, Best organiser – Simplicio Cabral (Sarzora), Best venue – Tivim.