Kerala held their nerves to beat Bengal via penalty shootout as they clinched their sixth national football championships for the Santosh Trophy at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on Sunday.
Timeline of Kerala’s triumphs
1973
Kerala had to wait till 1973 to lay their hands on the coveted Santosh Trophy. In the final held at the Maharaja’s College ground in Kochi, captain T K S Mani scored a brilliant hat-trick as Kerala shocked Railways 3-2 to win its maiden title.
That scintillating performance which changed the fortunes of Kerala football also earned him the nickname of 'Captain Mani'. Olympian Simon Sunderraj was the head coach of the team. However, the first Malayali captain to lift the Santosh Trophy was O Chandrasekharan, who guided Maharashtra to victory in 1963.
1992
After the historic win in 1973, it was an agonising wait for Kerala to take home the silverware again. In the 1992 Coimbatore nationals, they ended a 19-year title drought by thrashing Goa 3-0 in the final. It also marked the team’s first title win away from home. Legendary V P Sathyan was the team’s captain.
1993
Once again the Maharaja's College stadium in Kochi proved lucky for Kerala as they retained the trophy in 1993 by getting the better of Maharashtra 2-0 in the final. It was Kurikesh Mathew’s turn to hold aloft the trophy.
2001
After a gap of seven years, Kerala emerged the national champions in 2001 at the Cooperage Stadium in Mumbai, their first victory outside south Indian soil. Ace striker Abdul Hakim struck a golden goal in the extra-time to help them record a hard-fought 3-2 win over Goa after the teams were level 2-2 at the regulation time. Hakim finished as the tournament's top scorer with seven goals. V Sivakumar was the captain of the team.
2004
Kerala crowned the national champions for the fifth time at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi in 2004. Led by Sylvester Ignatius, they tamed the mighty Punjab 3-2 in the final. As the regulation time failed to break the 2-2 deadlock, the match went into extra-time and Ignatius attained the heroic feat with a thunderous finish in the third minute of the second half of the extra-time.
Read more: Sports
