Karnataka scripted history on Saturday ending their 54-year wait to win the Santosh Trophy after trouncing Meghalaya in a thrilling 3-2 win at the King Fahd International Stadium in the Saudi Arabian Capital.
In December last year, when Karnataka went down to Delhi in the concluding preliminary Group 1 league match of the 76th National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy in Delhi, they weren’t sure about making the next stage as there were too many calculations involved in it. Yet, on Saturday night, Karnataka not only emerged the proud champions with a hard-fought win over Meghalaya but also ended their 54-year wait for the title that remained elusive to them since the 1968-69 Nationals In Bangalore.
But then, it was a different era with different names in those days.
The state that won the trophy beating Bengal in the final after two days of intense struggle was Mysore, not Karnataka. The match was played in Bangalore, the garden city, which is now known as Bengaluru.
Since then, the Santosh Trophy could never return to the Karnataka State Football Association’s cupboard, despite the state being one of the major producers of quality footballers in the country.
In between, some of the finest names in Indian football, starting from Iliyas Pasha, Rehamatullah, Babu Mani, Carlton Chapman to Shanmugam Venkatesh and many others, served the National Team with distinction, but the coveted trophy for the National Football Championship always travelled elsewhere after every meet.
Not even the staunchest supporters of Karnataka could perhaps ever imagine that the state team would have to travel more than 3,000 kilometres from Bengaluru to bring back the Santosh Trophy after five decades.
But it happened like that and watching the final at one of the continent’s finest venues one may have clearly felt the youngsters from Karnataka, on Saturday night, were eager to make sure the trophy doesn’t give them a slip once again.