Bhubaneswar: The Football Association of Odisha (FAO) has announced a 22-member senior team for the 77th National Football Championships for Santosh Trophy 2023-24.
Odisha will play in Group-B at two venues in Punjab from October 9 to 18. Other five teams in the group are West Bengal, Punjab, Ladakh, Haryana and Delhi. Odisha will play their opening match against West Bengal on October 9 and the fifth and last against Delhi on October 18. Other three matches of Odisha are scheduled to be played against Punjab, Ladakh and Haryana on October 11, 13 and 16 respectively.
Akshay Das has been named as the Head Coach of the Odisha team. This is for the third time he has been given the responsibility as the head coach. Das, who works as a coach at the Jamshedpur-based Tata Football Academy, also played the role of assistant of the Odisha senior men team once.
THE TEAM: Rabi Deulapadia, Chandra Muduli, Kartik Hantal (all Koraput), Raisen Tudu, Fagu Hembram, Gorachand Marndi (all Mayurbhanj), Pintu Samal, Dinabandhu Das, Bikash Kumar Sahoo (all Cuttack), Sanjay Hembram (Balasore), Sidhant Pradhan (Bargarh), Anand Oram, Arbin Lakra, Arpan Lakra, Bisal Tigga (all Rourkela), Rajesh Oram (Jharsuguda), Harjindar Singh (Bhubaneswar), D Srinath, B Siba (Ganjam), Mohan Majhi (Sundargarh), Chandrakant Das (Sonepur), Raja Harijan (Nabarangpur).