It was a complete team effort: Kerala coach Satheevan Balan

Bengaluru, April 2: The decision of Satheevan Balan to pick a bunch of youngsters to lead Kerala's campaign in the Santosh Trophy was doubted for several reasons but the main point was the obvious inexperience of the players at this level.

But weeks later, the 'boys' have brought Santosh Trophy back to Kerala after 13 years, beating defending champions Bengal in the penalties at Kolkata on Sunday (April 1).

BFC BEAT GOKULAM KERALA" title="KERALA BAG SANTOSH TROPHY | BFC BEAT GOKULAM KERALA" />KERALA BAG SANTOSH TROPHY | BFC BEAT GOKULAM KERALA

Relief. Joy. Satisfaction of seeing his decision getting vindicated. The bag of Satheevan's emotions was a mix of all those aforementioned feelings. "Quite happy that we are able to bring the Santosh Trophy back after a long gap. All credit for these boys who played some good attacking football from the first game and maintained the tempo throughout the tournament. It is not easy to beat Bengal in their own den in football," Satheevan told Mykhel.

Satheevan is no stranger to success. He had masterminded Calicut University's title run in the All India Inter-University championship for Dr Ashutosh Mukherjee Shield and was the India U18 assistant coach to Stephen Constantine when they triumphed in the Ian Rush International Youth Cup way back in 2003. He had also spurred Kerala to Under-13 national football championship.

His mantra is quite simple - identify players that suits the team strategy irrespective of their age and experience. "I had adopted the same policy when I coached Calicut University. Once you form a game plan, it's not good to change it for individual players. You need players who adapt. My approach while picking the Kerala team for the Santosh Trophy was similar. It was not that I excluded senior players from the team. I had invited several of them for trials and picked the best team from the available talent," said Satheevan.

Satheevan said players from Kerala can scale even bigger heights if they get regular opportunities. He cited the examples of players like Mithun V, VK Afdal and skipper Rahul V Raj.

Kerala Crowned new champions of 72nd Hero Santosh Trophy as Kerala win on penalties by scoreline of 4-2 after a 2-2 stalemate at the end of the extra time.
KER 2 - 2 BEN#HeroSantoshTrophy #KERvBEN

— Indian Football Team (@IndianFootball) April 1, 2018

"Players from Kerala do not get that many opportunities to play for academies and football schools across India. If you see this side, the average age is 23 and I know many of them have great potential. But they need consistent opportunities to play at a good level and I am sure then they will touch bigger heights. But right now, I am happy to see the complete team effort from the Kerala players in the Santosh Trophy," he said.