Doon lad captains Pune football team to victory in Challenger Cup

Tribune News Service

Dehradun, December 30

Another young footballer from Dehradun has brought laurels to the city. Sahil Panwar has been captaining the Pune Football Club U-17 team that won the Football Challenger Cup held at Chandigarh recently.

A resident of Ekta Vihar on Sahastradhara Road, Sahil belongs to a family of footballers. His father, Deepak Panwar, was a football player, while his elder sister Raksha Panwar captained the Indian girls’ U-16 team and played many international matches. At present, she is a member of the Delhi U-21 football team.

Sahil, who studied at Maharana Pratap Sports College, said he was chosen to play for the Pune U-17 team while representing his college in the Subroto Cup Football Tournament-2014 in New Delhi. Being a defender on the field, he was given the captaincy this year and he brought the team into the limelight by defeating Chandigarh Football Academy 3-1 in the final of the Football Challenge Cup.

In the Subroto Cup Football Tournament-2015, he led his team up to the quarterfinal level, where it lost to the All-India Football Federation (AIFF) team 1-0 in a close encounter. Sahil was also given a chance to play the I-league tournament by his club this season.

He has been training hard and learning the finer skills of the game and hoped to represent the Indian football team in the near future, Sahil added.