Sunil Chetri named best NFL player

JCT's Sunil Chetri has been adjudged the best player of the 11th National Football League.

The Delhi lad, who was the highest scorer among the Indians in the league with 12 goals, came up with 50 points to beat the competition. He was also rated the best forward in the league. He was the joint fifth topscorer in the overall charts.

Robert Mendes Silva of the champions Dempo Sports Club was adjudged the best midfielder while Churchill Brothers' Odafe Okolie was at the top of the goalscoring charts with 18 strikes.

Last season's champions Mahindra United bagged two individual awards with Sandip Nandy rated the best goalkeeper and Mahesh Gawli claiming the Jarnail Singh Award for the best defender. This is the second successive year the duo have walked away with the two awards.

The Fair Play award went to second placed JCT, with Sukhwinder Singh's side getting only nine yellow cards and no reds. It is the eighth consecutive time the team from Punjab won the distinction, ninth in total.

In a worrying trend, the 29 foreign players in the league scored as many as 133 of the 243 goals scored. In contrast, the 254 Indians managed 110 strikes between them.

Champions Dempo scored the highest number of goals --39, while relegated Mohammedan Sporting conceded as many as 42.

Decreasing attendance has been a worrying trend in the league and the season saw a combined total of 3,58,050. The East Bengal-Mohun Bagan derby saw the highest attendance of 50,000 while the Sporting Clube-de-Goa v Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd game saw only 200 spectators.

The average attendance in the league was 3,978.33.