Sporting Clube de Goa defender Miguel Garcia won SCG Player’s Player of the Year award while Mauvin Borges clinched SCG Player’s Young Player of the Year award at a ceremony held at the Club House in Panaji recently.
The awards voted for by Sporting Clube’s senior squad are to reward and recognise the outstanding contributions made by their own teammates.
While Portuguese defender Miguel beat stiff competition of midfielder Pratesh Shirodkar, right back Clemente Joseph took the third place.
Mauvin was the winner of the U-23 award, just ahead of goalkeeper Ravi Kumar and India international defender Sandesh Jhinghan who finished third.
Joseph Pereira completed a record 15 seasons with Sporting Clube de Goa and was symbolically handed the captain’s armband during their concluding Goa Pro League clash against Churchill Brothers at the Duler Football Stadium in Mapusa on Wednesday.
Now in the twilight of his career, Joe, as he is affectionately known, has been a rare one-club player. He joined Sporting Clube in 2003 and has been part of all four triumphs in the Goa Pro League.
“He is our all-time great. His record is incredible,” said club secretary Victor Fernandes. “Joe was impressive in the field. Those touches of brilliance are still there. As long as he desires, and is fit to play, there will always be a place for Joe at Sporting,” said Fernandes.
Joe, who will turn 36 in June, is the longest-serving player at Sporting Clube. Should he continue for another year, he will match the record of Brahmanand Shankhwalkar and Bento Andrew at Salgaocar SC, while another year would see him overtake the likes of Camilo Gonsalves, Clifford Miranda and Samir Naik at Dempo Sports Club.
While the day was special for Joe, Sporting Clube missed out on a record of their own.
All along this season, Sporting Clube were unstoppable. At the start, during the All-India football tournament for the AWES Cup, Sporting remained undefeated, yet were unlucky not to have qualified for the semifinals. In the Goa Pro League, they had better luck as they won the title with a match in hand. But in the concluding league clash, they lost to Churchill Brothers 1-2, and with it lost the record of winning the league title without losing a single match. When Sporting Clube last won the league title in 2016, they had lost three matches. Since the inception of the Goa Pro League in 1998, only Dempo Sports Club (2005-06) and Salgaocar FC (2014-15) have remained unbeaten on their way to the title. Sporting Clube completed their league engagements with 55 points in their kitty, the highest number of points that any club has won, simply because the league has never before had 12 teams. Churchill Brothers are seventh on the table with 23 points from 20 matches. All goals in this battle were scored in the opening 45 minutes. Willis Plaza and Israil Gurung scored for Churchill while Marcus Mascarenhas had equalised for Sporting Clube and raised hopes that they would end their campaign unbeaten. In the end, that was not to be.
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The awards voted for by Sporting Clube’s senior squad are to reward and recognise the outstanding contributions made by their own teammates.
While Portuguese defender Miguel beat stiff competition of midfielder Pratesh Shirodkar, right back Clemente Joseph took the third place.
Mauvin was the winner of the U-23 award, just ahead of goalkeeper Ravi Kumar and India international defender Sandesh Jhinghan who finished third.
Joseph's Sporting loyalty crosses 15 seasons
Now in the twilight of his career, Joe, as he is affectionately known, has been a rare one-club player. He joined Sporting Clube in 2003 and has been part of all four triumphs in the Goa Pro League.
“He is our all-time great. His record is incredible,” said club secretary Victor Fernandes. “Joe was impressive in the field. Those touches of brilliance are still there. As long as he desires, and is fit to play, there will always be a place for Joe at Sporting,” said Fernandes.
Joe, who will turn 36 in June, is the longest-serving player at Sporting Clube. Should he continue for another year, he will match the record of Brahmanand Shankhwalkar and Bento Andrew at Salgaocar SC, while another year would see him overtake the likes of Camilo Gonsalves, Clifford Miranda and Samir Naik at Dempo Sports Club.
While the day was special for Joe, Sporting Clube missed out on a record of their own.
All along this season, Sporting Clube were unstoppable. At the start, during the All-India football tournament for the AWES Cup, Sporting remained undefeated, yet were unlucky not to have qualified for the semifinals.
In the Goa Pro League, they had better luck as they won the title with a match in hand. But in the concluding league clash, they lost to Churchill Brothers 1-2, and with it lost the record of winning the league title without losing a single match. When Sporting Clube last won the league title in 2016, they had lost three matches.
Since the inception of the Goa Pro League in 1998, only Dempo Sports Club (2005-06) and Salgaocar FC (2014-15) have remained unbeaten on their way to the title.
Sporting Clube completed their league engagements with 55 points in their kitty, the highest number of points that any club has won, simply because the league has never before had 12 teams. Churchill Brothers are seventh on the table with 23 points from 20 matches.
All goals in this battle were scored in the opening 45 minutes. Willis Plaza and Israil Gurung scored for Churchill while Marcus Mascarenhas had equalised for Sporting Clube and raised hopes that they would end their campaign unbeaten. In the end, that was not to be.