Minerva Punjab F.C.

Minerva Punjab FC
Full name Minerva Punjab Football Club
Nickname(s) Warriors
Founded 2005 as Minerva Academy
Ground Tau Devi Lal Stadium (I-League)
The Arena(AFC Cup)
Capacity 7000
Owner Ranjit Bajaj
Head Coach Vacant
League I-League
2017–18 Champions 1st
Website Club website

Minerva Punjab Football Club, also known as Minerva Academy, are an Indian professional football club based in Chandigarh. Minerva Punjab compete as a member of the I-League, the top-tier league for Indian football.

The club's majority owner, founder, and executive director is Ranjit Bajaj. Minerva Punjab play their I-League home matches at the Guru Nanak Stadium in Ludhiana.[1]

History

The team was established in 2005 as Minerva Academy and has a football and cricket club. The team first played at the national level during the 2015–16 season when they played in the I-League 2nd Division. They finished that season as runners-up behind champions Dempo. On 11 December 2016 the team was awarded a direct-entry spot in the I-League for the 2016–17 season.

The team took part in its first major tournament at the national level, I-League 2nd Division and had an impressive run and were the runners up losing to 5 time I-League Champions Dempo SC.

They won I-League 1st Division during the 2017-18 season. This being their first league win ever and it was also the first time a North Indian team won the league since 1996.

First-team squad

As of 2 October 2018[2]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player
– India GK Arshdeep Singh
22 India GK Bhaskar Roy
13 India DF Akashdeep Singh
50 Rwanda DF Aimable Nsabimana
– India DF Mohamed Irshad
21 India MF Prabhjot Singh
47 Brazil FW Robert De Souza
21 India FW Akash Sangwan
14 India FW Dilli Ram Sanyasi
– India MF Akhil P.M
– India DF Nikhil Pal
8 India MF Randeep Singh
No. Position Player
5 India DF Arshpreet Singh
42 Ghana MF William Opoku
25 Nigeria MF Philip Njoku
– India MF Hitova Ayemi
10 Japan FW Yu Kuboki
43 India FW C.S. Sabeeth
– India MF Liandala Fanai
– India FW Sandeep Rajput
49 India MF Amandeep Singh
15 India MF Souvik Das
26 India DF Deepak Devrani
20 India FW Nongdamba Naorem
02 India MF Harpreet Bedi

Record

Season Div. Tms. Pos. Attendance/G Federation Cup/Super Cup Durand Cup AFC Champions League AFC Cup
2015–16 I-League 2nd 10 2 – DNP DNP DNP DNP
2016–17 I-League 10 9 2,757 DNP Group stage DNP DNP
2017-18 I-League 10 1 5,736 Round of 16 DNP DNP DNP
2018-19 I-League 10 – – – – – –
Key
  • Tms. = Number of teams
  • Pos. = Position in league
  • Attendance/G = Average league attendance

Seasons

As of 2 November 2017
Year I-League Federation
Cup		 AFC Champions League Top Scorer(s)
Div P W D L GF GA Pts Pos. Player(s) Goals
2015–16 IL2 18 11 4 3 30 14 37 2nd DNP DNP Nigeria Kareem Omolaja 4
2016–17 IL 18 2 7 9 17 33 13 9th DNP DNP Nigeria Loveday Enyinnaya; Nigeria Kareem Omolaja 3
2017–18 IL 18 11 2 5 24 16 35 1st DNP DNP Bhutan Chencho Gyeltshen 7

Team management

Paul Munster, current Minerva Punjab technical director
As of 9th August 2018.
Position Name
Technical Director Northern Ireland Paul Munster
Head Coach Vacant
Assistant Coach Vacant
Team Manager India Sachin Badadhe
Physiotherapist India Karuna Kant Gupta

Head coach's record

updated on 28 May 2017

NameNationalityFromToPWDLGFGAWin%
Surinder Singh  India 2016 2017 18 2 7 9 17 33 011.11
Khogen Singh  India 2017 2018 19 11 2 6 24 16 057.89

Honours

Domestic

Champions (1): 2017-18
Runner Up (1): 2015–16
champions (1):2018[3]

References

  1. ↑ "Minerva Academy FC: All You Need To Know". Khel Now. 22 November 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  2. ↑ "Squad". Soccerway. Retrieved 11 December 2017.
  3. ↑ "Minerva Punjab clinch 32nd Punjab Super League title". khelnow.com. Retrieved 28 September 2018.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.