Sunil Chhetri recommended for the Arjuna Award

The national awards selection committee today officially announced the list of recipients for the 2011 national sports awards and once more a footballer will be amongst the Arjuna awardees in the name of India striker Sunil Chhetri. The final list still has to be approved by the Ministry of Sports, but that is seen as a mere formality.

It would be a great achievement for the Delhi boy who started his career with local City Club before moving to Mohun Bagan AC. Thereafter he went to JCT where he started to show glimpses what he is capable off. In the last couple of seasons Sunil has played for Dempo SC, then spend the summer with North American MLS side Kansas City Wizards before playing for Chirag United SC in the second half of last season.

This year the AIFF had recommended the names of former captains Jo Paul Anchery and Shanmugam Venkatesh besides current players Subrata Pal, Mahesh Gawli, Climax Lawrence and Sunil Chhetri for the award. In the end Sunil Chhetri has been chosen by the committee to get the Arjuna Award.

Congrats Sunil! You deserve it.


Complete list for Arjuna Awardees

Archery - Rahul Bannerjee

Athletics - Preeja Sreedharan, Vijas Gowda

Badminton - Jwala Gutta

Boxing - Suronjoy

Cricket - Zaheer Khan

Disabled - Prashant Karmakar

Football - Sunil Chhetri

Gymnastics - Ashish Kumar

Hockey - Rajpal Singh

Kabaddi - Rakesh Kumar, Tejaswini Bai

Shooting - Tejaswini Sawant

Swimming - Virdhaval Khade

Tennis - Somdev Devvarman

Volleyball - Sanjay Kumar

Weightlifting - Ravi Kumar

Wrestling - Ravindra Singh

Wushu - Sandhya Rani Devi

AIFF recommends names for National Awards

The All India Football Federation has recommented the names of coaches and players for this years Indian national sports awards - Dronacharya Award, Dhyanchand Lifetime Achievement Award and Arjuna Award.

Armando Colaco, the interim Indian national football team coach and coach-cum-secretary of Dempo SC, has been recommended for this years Dronacharya Award, which so far has only been awarded to one Indian football coach in Syed Nayeemuddin in the year 1992. Armando without doubt is the Indian club coach of the last decade who took Dempo from being a 2nd Division team to India's best club side of the last few years.

For the Dhyanchand Lifetime Achievement Award former India striker and now coach Shabbir Ali has been recommended by the AIFF. Shabbir not only played for India at junior and senior level, he has been a successful coach for a number of years. He coached Salgaocar SC to the 1999 National Football League title and in the last couple of editions he has been the coach of Santosh Trophy champions West Bengal.

After last years confusion about the Arjuna Awardee as only one footballer can get the award per year, it was given to a deserving Deepak Kumar Mondal in 2010. This year the AIFF has recommended former captains Jo Paul Anchery and Shanmugam Venkatesh besides current players Subrata Pal, Mahesh Gawli, Climax Lawrence and Sunil Chhetri for the award. It will be interesting to see if a footballer is chosen and who it then would be.

Hopefully Indian football will be having new national sports awards winners this year.