WB govt felicitate Atletico de Kolkata

The members of the victorious inaugural Indian Super League title winner Atletico de Kolkata (ATK) were on Wednesday felicitated by West Bengal government and the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.

“The victory will inspire youngsters to play football. We love Kolkata and we are proud of you Team Kolkata, Thank you so much,” chief minister Mamata Banerjee said at the programme held at Netaji Indoor Stadium.

“We convey our best wishes to those, who are trying to popularise football at grass-root level. We have to groom budding sportspersons,” she added. Though ATK’s foreign recruits have returned home, local players Mohammad Rafique, who scored the winning goal in the final against Kerala Blasters, Arnab Mondal, Sanju Pradhan, Baljit Sahni, Biswajit Saha, Rakesh Masih, Kingshuk Debnath, goalkeeper Subhasish Roy Chowdhury were present.

The CM handed over gifts, ‘uttariya’ and a special trophy to the players. Besides players, the assistant coach, physio and team doctor, ATK co-owners Harshavardhan Neotia, Sanjiv Goenka and Utsav Parekh were also felicitated.