TOP NEWS OF KOLKATA FOOTBALL

Colin Toal of Ireland — a permanent technical director of the team — will take charge in absence of Indian Senior football team’s British coach Bob Houghton. He will return home on January 25 for treatment of his injury, in Cape Town, South Africa. Former Indian and Eastbengal player Mr. Shanto Mitra who is now the Editor-in-Chief of "KICK-OFF : The Only monthly magazine published by IFA" has been appointed manager of the Indian team for the Pre-Olympic Qualifier matches against Myanmar and Iran - said AIFF President Mr. P.R.Dasmunshi at a Press Conference in Park Hotel, Kolkata.

He added, the glorious Nehru Gold Cup will return back in August this year, after a 10 years gap. ONGC the sponsor of 10th and 11th National Football League successively, has shown interest in sponsoring this tournament as well. Sudan, Vietnam, Iraq, Iran, Seria, Quata and Mayanmar National Team may play in this tournament.

India Seniors will play twelve International matches every year alongwith India 'B' and 'C' teams, to look for more international exposures so that the team’s rankings get a boost. On improving the quality of Indian football, Das Munshi said a few initiatives had already been taken like talent hunt and setting up of selection committees for both junior and senior sides.

AIFF will recruit spotter for every affiliated state. they will spot U-16 & U-19 talents from the interior of India. Federation also ordered every state to send their spotters' name within 7th Feb.

To have a better understanding of the football scenario in the country, Fifa president Sepp Blatter will pay a three-day visit to India between end of March and early April.

 GoalKeeper :      Subrata Paul (Mohunbagan)
 Defenders:        Anupam Sarkar (Eastbengal)
                   Debobrata Roy (Eastbengal)
                   Gurjinder Singh (Eastbengal)
                   D.Ravanan (Mohunbagan)
                   Subhash Chakrabarty (Mohunbagan)
                   Mehtab Hossain (Mohunbagan)
                   Habibur Rahman Mondal (Mohammedan)
 Forward :         Surojit Bose (Mohunbagan)
                   Sushil Singh (Mohunbagan)
                   Sayed Rahim Nabi (Eastbengal)
                   Vimal Pariyar (Eastbengal)                   
 

FIFA World Player of the Year 2006

The winners will be announced at the 16th FIFA World Player Gala at the Zurich Opera House on 18 December. The lists of candidates for the prestigious awards were drawn up by football experts from different FIFA committees. The Committee for Women’s Football and the FIFA Women’s World Cup, in conjunction with women’s football experts from other FIFA committees, have nominated 20 players from the women’s game. The 30 players from the men’s game were chosen by the Football Committee and the Technical and Development Committee. In addition to the traditional FIFA Presidential Award and FIFA Fair Play Award, the 16th FIFA World Player Gala will also include prizes for outstanding performances at the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany™. The tournament’s three best players (Zinedine Zidane, Fabio Cannavaro and Andrea Pirlo) and top scorers (Miroslav Klose, Hernan Crespo and Ronaldo) will be presented with awards in Zurich, as will the two fairest teams(Brazil and Spain) and the outstanding goalkeeper (Gianluigi Buffon).

The following top seed 20 women are for World Player of the Year 2006

Laura Georges (France)
Duan Han (China PR)
Laura Kalmari (Finland)
Kristine Lilly (USA)
Renate Lingor (Germany)
Ma Xiaoxu (China PR)
Marta (Brazil)
Malin Mostrom (Sweden)
Monica Ocampo (Mexico)
Cathrine Paaske Sörensen (Denmark)
Kum Suk Ri (Korea DPR)
Silke Rottenberg (Germany)
Cheryl Salisbury (Australia)
Lotta Schelin (Sweden)
Christine Sinclair (Canada)
Kelly Smith (England)
Sandrine Soubeyrand (France)
Ingvild Stensland (Norway)
Cynthia Uwak (Nigeria)
Abby Wambach (USA).

The following top seed 30 men of FIFA World Player of the Year 2006

Adriano (Brazil)
Michael Ballack (Germany)
Gianluigi Buffon (Italy)
Fabio Cannavaro (Italy)
Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal)
Petr Cech (Czech Republic)
Deco (Portugal)
Didier Drogba (Côte d’Ivoire)
Michael Essien (Ghana)
Samuel Eto’o (Cameroon)
Luis Figo (Portugal)
Gennaro Gattuso (Italy)
Steven Gerrard (England)
Thierry Henry (France)
Kaka (Brazil)
Miroslav Klose (Germany)
Philipp Lahm (Germany)
Frank Lampard (England)
Jens Lehmann (Germany)
Alessandro Nesta (Italy)
Andrea Pirlo (Italy)
Franck Ribery (France)
Juan Roman Riquelme (Argentina)
Ronaldinho (Brazil)
Wayne Rooney (England)
Tomas Rosicky (Czech Republic)
Andriy Shevchenko (Ukraine)
Lilian Thuram (France)
Patrick Vieira (France)
Zinedine Zidane (France).