Delhi: Ayush Adhikari, Dalima Chibber awarded the Best Footballers of the year

In its bid to make Delhi and NCR a vibrant football-playing region, Football Delhi organized the much-awaited awards night for the first time here today.

Delhi's Ayush Adhikari, who displayed his sheer talent at the 2018-19 Santosh Trophy by top-scoring with 6 goals, was bestowed upon the Best Player (Male) award for the year, 2018-19. Indian national team defender Dalima Chibber was adjudged the Best Player (Female) 2018-19.

"I started playing football because my father was also a footballer and it has my entire family's dream to see me doing well in the sport. This award will provide me with all the inspiration needed to work harder and make both my family and India proud in the future," said Adhikari at the awards ceremony.

"It is an incredible feeling to see the efforts of all the footballers being recognised. Such awards and events motivate us. The best thing is even the people behave behind the scenes are getting the recognition that they deserve." said Dalima after receiving the award

The glittering ceremony was graced by the Guest of Honours, AIFF General Secretary, Kushal Das; Hindustan Zinc CEO, Sunil Duggal; Reliance Industries VP, Priti Srivastava; Ex-Chief Election Commissioner, SY Quareshi, and the Deputy Chief of Mission, Embassy of Spain, Eduardo Sanchez Moreno.

In the presence of the football world's who's who of the past and the present, the awards were given out in 34 disciplines.

India's U-16 national player Rudransh Singh was chosen as the Best Youth Player (Male) while national U-17 Vice-Captain Aveka Singh got the Best Youth Player (Female) award for the season.

"With India playing the FIFA U-17 Women's World Cup, this award is a huge source of motivation for me and I hope I can inspire many other girls to take up football and I hope to see each one of you coming out to support us as we play the World Cup, the biggest football extravaganza next year," said Aveka Singh after receiving the award.

While every match is incomplete without the coaches contribution and hence top honours for the coaches too were given for their contribution towards the sport and helping it to grow.

AFC A License holder and AIFF Coach and Education Instructor, Paritosh Sharma was selected as the Best Coach (Male) for helping Delhi qualify for the Santosh Trophy Final Round after a gap of five years and Disha Malhotra, AFC A License qualified and AIFF Coach and Education Instructor's efforts as India U17 Women's Team assistant coach and the Delhi women's team coach were recognized and she is bestowed with the Best Coach (Female) award for 2018-19.

Ex-International players, Aziz Quraishi and Surender Kumar were given the Football Delhi Diamond Award while Tarun Roy, Santosh Kashyap and Bhupinder Thakur were honoured with the Football Delhi Gold Award.

For the Best Football Developmental Project, NDMC U-10 Girls Development Programme was honoured while JSW & COSCO received the Outstanding Contribution (Corporates) award.

Among the educational institutions recognized for their tireless contributions to the sport were Modern School, Barakhamba Road and Vasant Valley, Vasant Kunj, which got the Best school in football (men) and Best school in football (women) awards respectively. Zakir Hussain Delhi College and Janki Devi Mahavidyala were chosen as the Best College in football (men) and Best College in football (women) respectively.