Shillong, Jan 18: The Meghalaya team will be setting off for Silapathar in Assam on Monday as they gear up for the start of their Group B campaign in the 79th Senior Men’s National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy 2025-26.
Meghalaya will play their first match in the Upper Assam town on 22 January against Odisha. The state team had a formal send-off on Friday at the MFA Ground in Polo here, with MFA President Hamletson Dohling present with other senior members of the association to give them warm words of encouragement.
Khlain Pyrkhat Syiemlieh will continue to lead the squad, which has undergone several changes since Meghalaya qualified from the preliminary stage last month. A few players are now no longer available due to club commitments or other reasons but the upside is that the state team has had plenty of time to prepare under Syiemlieh’s watchful eye.
Hosts Assam, defending champions West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Nagaland and Rajasthan have been drawn in Group A.
Meghalaya, Odisha, Kerala, Services, Punjab and Railways form Group B. Kerala were last year’s runners-up and have won the prestigious national title several times, the last being in 2021-22. Services, meanwhile, were champions as recently as 2023-24 and it was they who knocked Meghalaya out last season in the quarterfinals.
Punjab have to look back further in the past to the last time that they were winners – 2007-08 – but they have been second on three occasions since then. It has been an even longer wait for Railways – going back 60 years since they last lifted the trophy – but they were runners-up as recently as 2013-14.
Neither Meghalaya nor Odisha have ever won the championship but Meghalaya’s best result – also under Syiemlieh – came in 2022-23 when they were pipped in the final 3-2 by Karnataka.
Four teams from each group will qualify for the quarterfinals and that will be Meghalaya’s first target. The players, officials and the entire state will aim for more, but the team will have to take it one step at a time.
Meghalaya squad: Rajat Paul Lyngdoh, Banshanskhem Kharsyntiew, Nister Roy Suting, Wanboklang Lyngkhoi, Apborlang Kurbah, Wilbert D Marbaniang, Iohborlang L Lyngkhoi, Mebanaibok Kharbudnah, Richie Kharbani, Mebankhraw K Wahlang, Rimankhraw Kharumnuid, Riborlang L Lyngkhoi, Babysunday Marngar, Dibormi Kassar, Mebanshngain Kurkalang, Fairming Suting, Robertson M Khongriah, Hardy Cliff Nongbri, Kynsaibor Lhuid, Marbiangki Suchiang, Deibormame Tongper, Dawanchwa C Challam
Support staff: Khlain Pyrkhat Syiemlieh (Head Coach), Sailon Syngkrem (Assistant Coach), Dious Lapasam (Manager), Wanbokstar Syiemiong (Physio)
