Current Affairs - Football

• Kolkata will host the Durand Cup - world's third oldest and Asia's oldest football tournament between 05 September to 03 October 2021, with matches being played at various venues in and around Kolkata.
• The prestigious tournament was first held in 1888, at Dagshai (Himachal Pradesh) and is named after Mortimer Durand, who was then the Foreign Secretary in charge of India.
• The tournament was a conscious way to initially maintain health and fitness amongst the British troops but was later opened to civilians and currently is one of the leading sports events in the world.
• Mohun Bagan and East Bengal are the most successful teams in the history of the Durand Cup winning it sixteen times each.
• The winning team is presented with three trophies ie the President's Cup (first presented by Dr Rajendra Prasad), the Durand Cup (the original challenge prize - a rolling trophy) and the Shimla Trophy (first presented by citizens of Shimla in 1903 and since 1965, a rolling trophy).
• The Tournament was shifted from Delhi to Kolkata in 2019.

• The AIFF Player of the Year Awards are the annual football awards presented to the best footballers in India by the All India Football Federation (AIFF).
• Sunil Chhetri (6 times) and Bala Devi (3 times) are the most awarded players in Men’s and Women’s category respectively.

Best Players 2020-21

• Men's Player of the Year: Sandesh Jhingan (Jhinghan donned the national colours for the first time in 2015 and has made 40 international appearances since, including a crucial draw against Qatar in 2019. He had also won the AIFF Emerging Player Award in 2014 as well as the Arjuna Award last year).
• Men’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Suresh Singh Wangjam from Manipur
• Women’s Footballer of the Year: Bala Devi (She received this award for the third time, having previously won it two years in a row in 2014 and 2015. Currently playing for the Rangers Women's FC in Scotland, she remains the first Indian woman footballer to sign a professional contract in Europe.
• Women’s Emerging Footballer of the Year: Manisha Kalyan (She is a former India U-17 and U-19 international player, made her senior national team debut against Hong Kong in 2019. She also received the Emerging Player of the Tournament award at the 2019-20 Hero Indian Women's League, where she played a key role in Gokulam Kerala FC's run to the title)

• After four years in charge of the Indian women's senior national team, head coach Maymol Rocky has stepped down from her role.
• A former India international player, Maymol took over the reins as head coach in 2017 after a stint as the Assistant Coach and led the team to a number of international glories.
• The Indian Women's National Team created history in November 2018 by making it through to the second round of the Olympic qualifiers for the first time ever, and won the title at the SAFF Women's Championship in 2019 and the gold medal at the South Asian Games in Nepal.

Italy beat England 3-2 on penalties after the Euro 2020 final ended 1-1 following extra time at Wembley Stadium, England to secure their second European Championship title.

Awards

• Player of the Tournament: Gianluigi Donnarumma (Italy) - The Player of the Tournament award was given to Gianluigi Donnarumma, the first goalkeeper to win the award.
• Young Player of the Tournament: Pedri (Spain) - The Young Player of the Tournament award, open to players born on or after 1 January 1998, was given to Pedri.
• Top Scorer: Cristiano Ronaldo (Portugal) - The "Alipay Top Scorer Trophy", given to the top scorer of the tournament, was awarded to Cristiano Ronaldo, who scored five goals and recorded one assist.

• Lionel Messi-led Argentina beat Neymar’s Brazil 1-0 to win the Copa America final match, held at the Maracana Stadium in Rio de Janeiro.
• With this win, Lionel Messi has secured his first major international trophy.
• The 2021 Copa America was the 47th edition of the annual international men’s football championship organised by South America’s football ruling body CONMEBOL.

• Indian Football team’s captain Sunil Chhetri has surpasses Argentina’s Lionel Messi and became the second-highest active international goal-scorer with 74 strikes.
• He made this record in a joint preliminary qualifying round match for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup.
• Chhetri moved past Argentinian Messi’s 72 goals when he scored two goals against Bangladesh in a qualifying match for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup played at Qatar’s capital Doha.
• He is currently behind Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo (103) in the active international goal-scorer list.