MAPUSA: Chapora Yuvak Sangh was rightly declared “Team of the Year” for their excellent record, being unbeaten in their long campaign from 2022-23 Second Division League to the First Division League 2023-2024.
For the 60-year-old Chapora YS, it was indeed a very slow but steady campaign, starting in Third Division in 2018-2019. They defeated Benny XI in the finals to march to Second Division League and in 2022-2023 they defeated United Club Ambaulim in their last match to ascend to GFA’s First Division.
The backbone of Chapora has been its president, Pravin Dabolkar, presently in GFA’s Executive Committee, who alongwith Dr. Fenton D’Souza (vice-president), Mohandas Nagvekar (secretary) and Queency Dabolkar (treasurer) were ecstatic that their mission was accomplished.
Undeterred by the financial crunch, Pravin made his intentions clear the day when they surprised some of the GPL teams in the Goa Police
Cup 2022, and secured the runner-up spot, having lost to Sesa Football Academy in the finals which was witnessed by almost 6,000 spectators at Duler Stadium, Mapusa.
Since its inception, the club fielded young players but not at the expense of senior and experienced so as to strike a balance. Pravin along with the club’s executive members secured the much-required
finances to build a strong team. He extended a free hand, fully trusting head coach Severino Fernandes who selected players and took up the assignment in right earnest with dedication and determination. Severino praised the entire team for showing consistency in their 15-match run.
Severino showered praises on his striker Sachidanand Satelkar, who stole the limelight scoring 23 goals, recording five hat-tricks. Coming next was skipper and goalkeeper Soma Korgaonkar, whose brilliancy under the bar earned him the reputation of “safe pair of hands”.
The squad:
Goalkeepers: Soma Korgaonkar, Dinesh Morajkar, Akash Sirsaikar. Defenders: Joaquim Carvalho, Pratik Naik, Alfred Noronha, Pranav Gaonkar, Renny Dias, Sidhant Palni, Akshay Dabholkar, Akshay Vengulekar.
Midfielders: Pavan Dhargalkar, Aniket Naik, Nehal Parsekar, Pratik Dhargalkar, Arun Naik, Aryan Salonki, Shario Gomes, Sankalp Kankonkar, Chandan Govenkar.
Strikers: Sachidanand Satelkar, Albino Pereira, Arjun Shetgaonkar, Maroviti Harizon, Ranjeet Tete.
