Meghalaya's OM Memorial lifts U-17 Boys' Subroto Cup title

OM Roy Memorial, Shillong, Meghalaya won the U-17 Boy's title of the 54th Subroto Cup football tournament in spectacular fashion, after outplaying Magurmari High School, Kokrajhar, Assam 4-0 in a thrilling final at the Ambedkar Stadium here on Saturday.

Mebanshan Suting scored for Meghalaya in the 35th minute while Nongrud Jefforson (46th min), Kynter Lenningston (61st min) and  Kurbah Michaelson (69th min) found the net after the break.

This was the second time after 1978 that a team from Meghalaya has won the U-17 Boys' title. On the other hand, this was the fifth time a team from Assam has appeared in the final.

The first half saw a battle of equals before Suting gave Meghalaya the lead a minute before the break with a beautiful attempt from the top of the box which found the top corner.

The goal seemed to lift the spirits of the Meghalaya players and they dominated the second half. Nongrud doubled the lead with a nice diving header off a cross from the left a few minutes after the restart.  Kynter Leningstar scored the third goal with a wonderful long range effort.

Assam continued to fight on and their striker Kapil forced a fine save from Meghalaya goal keeper Sten Banshanlal in the 65th minute with a well taken effort from the top of the box.

An unmarked Kurbah Michaelson drove the final nail in Assam's coffin, scoring with a header after being fed by Nongrud Jefferson.

For the first time in the history of Subroto Cup, I-League clubs have shown interest in scouting talented young players from the tournament with spotters from Shillong Lajong and Pune FC selecting 15 boys. These boys will be sent for trials with these two clubs.

These 15 boys and U-17 Boys' champions OM Roy Memorial, Meghalaya will also take part in the Bayern Youth Cup, a tournament organized by Adidas in association with German club Bayern Munich to be held in the capital by the end of this year.

"It will be a great opportunity for these boys to play in the Youth Cup and the winners will play in the World Youth Cup in Germany," Tushar Goculdas, Brand Director Adidas, said.

Meanwhile, Yuwa, a girls' team from Jharkhand who took third place at the Geisteiz Cup in Spain recently, played an exhibition match against this year's Subroto Cup girls' champion Radha Madhav Sanskrit Vidhyala of Bisnupur, Manipur.

The match, which ended goaless, was the first match played by Yuwa in India.

The Yuwa team were felicitated with Rs 1,00,000 and each of the girls were gifted an Adidas football kit as well.

The organisers of the Subroto Cup also picked a group of talented young boys to form the 'Subroto Boys' group. These boys will be given scholarship for education and football training.