Kerala's Santosh Trophy Football Championship Journey: Sathivan Balan Returns as Head Coach for 2023

2023-08-31 21:52:25

Friday Sep 1, 2023

Sathivan Balan became the head coach in the year when Kochi Kerala won the Santhosh Trophy for the first time. The Thiruvananthapuram native will coach the Kerala team for this year’s Santosh Trophy Football Championship. It’s his second turn. Kerala won the title for the first time in 2018. PK Aziz is the Asst. Coach. Harshal Rahman is the goalkeeper coach. The training camp will start after the state senior championship which starts tomorrow in Malappuram. Fifty-eight-year-old Sathivan is known as a coach who can win titles in any situation. Discipline and hard work are hallmarks. It was after a gap of 13 years that he won the national title in 2018 when he became a coach. PK Aziz was the coach of FC Kerala Club. He has also coached the Lakshadweep team in the Santosh Trophy. A native of Thrissur Parapur, he was also the head coach of Kerala Women’s Senior Team and Calicut University Team. PV Harshal Rahman, who hails from Kozhikode, was the goalkeeper of the SBT team for a long time. State Junior Team Asst. He has held the duties of coach and goalkeeping coach of Calicut University. Deputy Manager at Kozhikode Administrative Office of SBI. Last time, Kerala reached the final round but did not make it to the semi-finals. The preliminary round consists of 36 teams drawn into six groups. The final round consists of the six group winners, the top four runners-up, the defending champions and the runner-up. Kerala’s group matches will be held in Chhattisgarh. The final round is in Arunachal Pradesh. Kerala won seven times. The last title will be held at the Mancheri Payyanad Stadium in 2022. Read on deshabhimani.com