Raleng: a shooting star in Indian football

By John Cheeran
The recently held India’s national football championship for Santosh Trophy was all about a small player. The twenty-year old Manipuri striker Sochungmi Raleng scored 13 goals in the tournament and won the man of the tournament award, but his team, Services, could not bring down the fort of Punjab in the final played in Srinagar.
Services lost by a solitary goal. Punjab, who had 11 players from a professional club called JCT Phagwara, frustrated Raleng and company extremely and won thanks to their no-nonsense approach.
But the point is that Services and Raleng had done enough in the tournament to deserve the attention of Indian football watchers. Services had scored convincing and crushing wins over the eventual champions Punjab, former champions Bengal and Kerala, mainly relying on the goal-poaching abilities of Raleng.
Srinagar may be the end of the road for Services as a football team, but the journey for Raleng, the footballer, has only begun.
And with Indian national team going down to Maldives in the final of the SAFF championship, new thinkers on their feet are most welcome on the maidan.