There’s a nice Navy flavour in the Golden Threads FC team, which will play its first home match of the Second Division I-League at the Panampally Nagar ground here on Wednesday.
The Kochi-based Golden Threads won the Kerala Premier League football title last year (April 2022) but five months later, the All India Football Federation (AIFF) announced that no foreign players would be allowed in the Second Division I-League.
“We now have seven players from the Navy, some of them have played for the Services team... we are a good side,” S.S. Naushad, the Golden Threads team owner and managing director, told Sportstar on Tuesday.
The team has had some good results too, in the two away matches it played last week.
“We had a 1-0 win against Chennaiyin FC and a 1-1 draw against Bengaluru FC (both ISL reserve teams) in our first two games,” said Naushad.
Bibake, the man to watch
Both the Golden Threads goals came from Navy’s Bibake Thapa, the 32-year-old forward who hails from Sikkim.
“We have a good chance against RKM FC (Narainpur, Chhattisgarh) tomorrow evening,” said the team owner.
RKM, incidentally, suffered a 4-0 in its previous game against FC Bengaluru United on Saturday, while Golden Threads is on the second rung in Group ‘C’ after two matches but with the same number of points as group leader Bengaluru FC.
Golden Threads FC’s Bibake Thapa. | Photo Credit: Special arrangement
However, Golden Threads did not do very well in this year’s Kerala Premier League – where foreign players are allowed and which ended in Wayanad on Sunday – finishing third in its group and failing to make the super-six stage.
“We conduct the KPL one year in advance to give the clubs time to prepare for the Second Division I-League,” explained P. Anilkumar, the Kerala Football Association secretary.
“Golden Threads are last year’s KPL winners, and they have got one year’s time to try and do something better.”
Comments
SHARE