Arch-rivals Kerala and Bengal’s new generation lock horns in Santosh Trophy final

The 30,000-seater Payyanad Stadium in Manjeri will be packed to the rafters as it plays host to the final of the 75th Santosh Trophy national football championship on Monday. For Kerala, it will be a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to win the prestigious trophy in front of their home crowd – a feat they have achieved twice before.
For West Bengal, the challengers who are looking to silence the vocal Malappuram crowd, it is a chance to once again underline their supremacy in the competition with a record-extending 33rd title and also to exact revenge for the defeat to Kerala in the 2017-18 final at Kolkata’s Salt Lake Stadium.
The final could be a neck-and-neck affair, opined Kerala head coach Bino George and his Bengal counterpart Ranjan Bhattacharjee. Kerala had inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Bengal when the two sides met in the group stages, but that scoreline did not tell the complete story of that game played a fortnight ago.
“We had dominated that game for 75 minutes, but Kerala scored the opener in the 84th minute. We could still have rescued a point had Supriya Pandit not missed an open chance in the injury time before Kerala made it 2-0. So, I think the trophy will go to whoever converts the chances better on Monday,” said Bhattacharjee.
Bino, meanwhile, said that his players have already forgotten about that win. ‘’We just want to gift this trophy to the fans who have cheered and prayed for us. We have worked a lot for this. We had qualified for the final round in 2019-20 before the tournament was cancelled. I hope we get the result this time around," he said.
Kerala and Bengal, the two traditional hotbeds of Indian football, have fought for supremacy several times in the history of the competition. They have faced each other 31 times in the tournament so far with Bengal winning 15 matches, including two of the three finals, and Kerala emerging victorious in eight.
But unlike in the heydays of the tournament when stalwarts like IM Vijayan and Prasun Banerjee used to wear the colours of the two sides, it is youngsters like Jijo Joseph and Fardin Ali Molla who fly the flag for them these days hoping to impress potential suitors and pave their way into an Indian Super League or I-League club.
Kerala also boast of a highly-talented playmaker in Arjun Jayaraj and a red-hot striker in Jesin TK, who scored a record five goals after coming on as a substitute against Karnataka in the semifinal. Bengal, meanwhile, will pin their hopes on midfielder Sujit Singh and the safe hands of goalkeeper Priyant Kumar Singh.
Malappuram will throw up an atmosphere unlike any for these youngsters on Monday and it will be up to them to seize that opportunity and write a piece of history for their respective states.
Numbers
3 - Kerala and West Bengal have met thrice in the final of the Santosh Trophy with all three games decided in penalty shootouts. Kerala won the last edition in 2017-18 while Bengal won the first two (1988-89 & 93-94).
7 - Of Kerala's 14 final appearances so far, seven have come when they were hosts of the nationals. However, they have only won two of those seven finals (1973-74 and 1990-91 both in Kochi) in front of the home crowd.