Lajong Football Club-The Mighty Rise
The sudden rise of the little known Shillong based Lajong Football Club has taken football lovers across the nation by surprise. The Football Club from the North East qualified for Indian football’s Elite I-League for the first time and also played considerably well beating formidable opponents like Mohun Bagan in the tournament. There has been no looking back since then.
They have played against top clubs of the country this year. The emergence of the Club has been a very significant event in the history of the Football crazy region. The game of soccer is a passion for the young in North-Eastern states. Players from the Northeast have always been on the national scene; the current I-League champion: Churchill Brothers, has six. Teams like Mohun Bagan and East Bengal have many in their ranks. More importantly, the man who led the first Indian team at the 1948 London Olympics was a North-Eastern Dr Talimeran Ao from Nagaland. Yet, strangely enough, no team from the Northeast had made it to the top level in Indian football. Lajong is the first.
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The birth of the Lajong Football club took place during the finals of the Meghalaya Invitation Cup of 1982,when two soccer lovers and enthusiasts Shri Kitdor Syiem and Shri P. D. Sawyan resolved to form a football club from Shillong . They along with a group of friends and supporters started the Lajong Football Club literally translating into “Our own” or “of the people”.
They started attaining success in the preceding Years and gradually transformed from 3rd Division to 1st Division .Lajong won the Shillong Championship in 1989 which declared the rise of a mighty Football Club . The Major triumph for it came in 1990 when Lajong FC became the Meghalaya Invitation Cup champion beating Nabajyoti FC the Guwahati champions in the finals, seven years after its maiden entry.It was in the last 8 years that the Club started making rapid progress. Its youth development initiative has produced 6 players who have represented the Indian junior team in the last 5 years.The Club recently created history by being the first club from the North Eastern Region to qualify for the biggest league in the country the I- League.
In this region, the youth dream of achieving what heroes like Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chetri and Gaurmangi Singh have achieved and this was evident during the Hero Honda Federation Cup, that saw country’s best football clubs battle out to win. A thick crowd of 40,000 thronged the Nehru Stadium at Guwahati to witness the 31st Federation Cup Final. It was a heartbreaking loss for the Lajong Team. The tournament ended with Kolkata’s East Bengal team taking away the trophy defeating Lajong Football Club of Shillong. But importantly it was for the first time that a team from the North East had featured in the finals of the Federation Cup, National club level football in India.
No doubt, despite this defeat Lajong has now become an inspiration for footballers in the region to reiterate that nothing is impossible. Spectators were moved by the sporting spirit of the lively footballers from Shillong. The man behind this success Lajong Football Club: Manager Larsing Ming was left awestruck at his teams progression.
One thing is sure, Lajong is going places!
Chronology of the Club• Founded in 1983 in Meghalaya Capital Shillong• Started dominating and getting prominence in 2006• Qualified for I League this year• Won two, lost two and drew three of their seven games. Currently ranked 9th among 14 teams.• Registered over 2,000 members in two weeks for a modest fee• Larsing Ming Saywan is the man behind the success of Lajong Football Club Source :Wikipedia
There is along way to go for Lajong and it will write many new record books in the Football history of the nation. Football is the game for the people of North East as were evident from school kids and youths playing football in nooks and corners of the region. The achievements of Lajong Football Club deserve a special mention in the history of Indian Football and it will take football to a new high.
