N-Es own close to making it big

The tradition of producing national-level footballers hadnt quite begun in the valleys of the North-East back in 1983 when PD Sawyan.....

The tradition of producing national-level footballers hadnt quite begun in the valleys of the North-East back in 1983 when PD Sawyan decided to establish a club comprising only locals. He made the decision after a 5-0 thrashing of a local Shillong team by an outside team.

In the following years,the Singhs from that part of the country Monitombi,Rennedy,Gourmangi,Bungo,Surkumar just came pouring into Indian football. Manipur won the Santosh Trophy,their players provided pace and trickery to many of Indias top teams and yet,oddly,there was no club from the North East that could make a mark at the national level.

However,25 years after their inception,Sawyans Lajong Sports Social and Cultural Club,now rechristened Shillong Lajong FC,are on the threshold of becoming the first professional team from the region to make the I-League main round.

There is no attempt of hiding the objective,the name is self-explanatory. Lajong means our own, says general secretary Larsing M Sawyan,son of PD Sawyan. We always wanted to constitute a team that would strictly include people of the North East. Only this year,we had to include a couple of foreigners but there wont be any more inclusions from outside.

We want to give a face to the footballers of the North East. For the last two-three years,more than 100 players from the region have played in various I-League teams. Since there was no club of repute here,they moved out to Kolkata or Goa. But whoever got exposure,it was due to solely his efforts or those of the Tata Football Academy as nobody took interest in our football. Now if we qualify for the I-League,it will give our football a new face, says Sawyan.

While emphasising this point,he still had the memories of 2006-07 when Lajong missed the main round of the I-League Division II by a whisker to Viva Kerala,and how Shillong was denied the hosting rights of the qualifiers of the event due to below-par grounds this year.