3rd FPAI Awards 2011 on Monday, September 26

The 3rd edition of the Indian Football Awards organised by the Football Players Association of India (FPAI) will be held on Monday, September 26 at the ITC Sonar in Kolkata. This was announced today at a press conference at the Saltlake Stadium ahead of today's matches in the Federation Cup attended by FPAI president Baichung Bhutia and member Alvito D'Cunha.

The chief guest this year will be the M.K. Narayanan, the Governor or West Bengal. Stars from Bollywood and other walks of life will also attend, but the FPAI could not mention names as it depends on the schedule of the stars. Last year John Abraham, Rahul Bose and Nandana Sen had attended the awards evening, which had been organised at the Taj Palace in New Delhi.

The Indian Football Awards will be taken to another level as there will be a lot of entertainment besides the awards. This year the FPAI have organized a fashion show for the players across the country along with other sources of entertainment with Sandeep and Sanjeev, Francis Lepcha and a dancing Tollywood superstar who will entertain those attending.

This years awards would have six categories - best Young Player, best Foreign Player, best Indian Player, best Coach, Fans Player of the Year and Fans Indian Player of the Asian Cup. The last two categories were chosen by the fans through an online voting on the FPAI website.


This Years Top Three Nominees

Best Young Player
Raju Eknath Gaikwad (Indian Arrows/East Bengal Club), Jeje Lalpekhula (Indian Arrows/Pune FC), Lenny Rodrigues (Churchill Brothers SC)

Best Foreign Player
Odafe Onyeka Okolie (Churchill Brothers SC/Mohun Bagan AC), Roberto Mendes Silva (Dempo SC/Churchill Brothers SC), Ryuji Sueoka (Salgaocar SC)

Best Indian Player
Mahesh Gawli (Dempo SC), Mehtab Hossain (East Bengal Club), Climax Lawrence (Dempo SC)

Best Coach
Karim Bencherifa (Salgaocar SC), Armando Colaco (Dempo SC), Trevor James Morgan (East Bengal Club)

Fans Player of the Year
Mehtab Hossain (East Bengal Club), Ranty Martins Soleye (Dempo SC), Tolgay Ozbey (East Bengal Club), Luciano Sabrosa (Salgaocar SC), Yakubu Yusif (Salgaocar SC/Prayag United SC)