New Delhi: The All India Football Federation has again forwarded the name of Jo Paul Ancheri for the Arjuna Award after the versatile player missed out on the prestigious award last year.

“We have recommended Ancheri’s name for this year’s award, but we have not recommended any name for the Dronacharya Award,” AIFF general secretary Alberto Colaco said.

If chosen, Ancheri will be the 21st footballer to win the honour. Ancheri’s close friend I. M. Vijayan was the last soccer player to bag the honour in 2002.

The 29-year-old Ancheri, who twice won the AIFF Player of the Year award in 1994 and 2001, is currently recuperating after a knee surgery in Kerala.

His exclusion together with that of high jumper Bobby Aloysius from last year’s list of Arjuna Award list saw sportspersons, officials, coaches and enthusiasts staging protests in Thiruvananthapuram.

The footballer from Kerala had a mediocre season for Mohun Bagan during the National Football League. He was troubled by injuries and when he returned to fitness looked a pale shadow of his former self. The off-season break should serve him well and he should be back to form during the ensuing season. (PTI)

List of Arjuna Awardees in soccer

• 1961 P K Banerjee, Bengal • 1962 T Balaram, Bengal • 1963 Subimal (Chuni) Goswami, Bengal • 1964 Jarnail Singh, Bengal • 1965 Arun Lal Ghosh, Railways • 1966 Yousuf Khan, Andhra Pradesh n 1967 Peter Thangaraj, Bengal n 1969 Inder Singh, Punjab • 1970 Syed Nayeemuddin, Bengal • 1971 Chandreshwar Prasad, Bengal • 1974 Magan Singh, Rajasthan • 1978 Gurdev Singh, Punjab • 1979 Prasun Banerjee, Bengal • 1980 Mohammed Habeeb, Bengal • 1982 Sudhir Karmakar, Bengal • 1991 Subroto Bhattarcharya, Bengal • 1997 Brahmanand Shankhwalkar, Goa • 1998 Bhaichung Bhutia, Bengal • 2000 Bruno Coutinho, Goa • 2002 I.M. Vijayan, Kerala