Football: Shivalkar named Head Coach of State Sr Squad

Pune, 15th November 2024: Two city footballers along with experienced coach Paresh Shivalkar of Poona District Football Association (PDFA) have been selected in the Maharashtra team for the Qualifying Round of the 78th National Football Championship (Santosh Trophy) 2024-25 to be played at Jaipur (Rajasthan) from Saturday, 16th November.

The city players include midfielders Sumeet Bhanudas Kate and Sumit Rajendra Singh Bhandari in the 22-member Maharashtra team, while ex-international and former State captain Paresh Shivalkar has been nominated as Head Coach of the squad announced by the Western India Football Association (WIFA) on Thursday.

The Maharashtra squad comprises of players from five districts namely Mumbai (10 players), Nagpur (6), Kolhapur (3), Pune (2), Solapur (1) respectively.

Shivalkar’s appointment as the state Head Coach is for the second time. Earlier, Shivalkar was named last year (2023-24) wherein Maharashtra qualified for the final round which was held in Arunachal Pradesh after making it through the qualifying round from Kolhapur.

Maharashtra will compete in Group I alongside hosts Rajasthan, Gujarat and Dadra & Nagar Haveli & Daman & Diu (DNH & DD). Maharashtra kick-off their campaign on November 16th against Rajasthan, followed by fixtures on November 18th against DNH & DD and November 20th versus Gujarat.

FIXTURES
16th Nov: Maharashtra vs. Rajasthan; Gujarat vs. DNH & DD
18th Nov: Rajasthan vs. Gujarat; DNH & DD vs. Maharashtra
20th Nov: Maharashtra vs. Gujarat; DNH & DD vs. Rajasthan

THE TEAM
Pruthviraj Abhay Salokhe; Rohit Raghunath Jadhav; Yashraj Manohar Kamble; Adithyan Prithviraj Dharmaj; Sumeet Bhanudas Kate (Pune); Tyson Jude Patel; Shanon Errol Pereira; Zaid Mohammed Naseem Ansari; Mohammed Arfat Aqeel Ansari; Kaustubh Ravindra Panchal; Nishant Sundar Shetty; Abhijit Tukaram Taware; Deepesh Purshottam Burrewar; Fahad Latifurr Junaid Azmi; Mohd Huzaif Maqsood; Aryan Ashish Banarjee; Yash Shankar Shukla; Owais Rashid Khan; Sumit Rajendra Singh Bhandari (Pune); Shubham Jagadish Pawar; Himanshu Sudhir Patil; Chinmay Mangesh Shirke.

Manager: Khaja Raziuddin Ansari; Head Coach: Paresh Vijay Shivalkar; Assistant Coach: Ritesh Inumula; Goalkeeper Coach: Mohammed Qadeer Shaikh; Team Physio: Jai Suresh Mange