Santosh Trophy, full list of champions: West Bengal leads roll of honour; Services reigning champs
West Bengal are the most successful team in the Santosh Trophy, having won 32 titles. Services are the reigning champions. Know all winners.
Football
Started in 1941, the Santosh Trophy is one of Indian football’s legacy tournaments. It is the national football championship for men.
At the time, tournaments like the Durand Cup, Rovers Cup and IFA Shield existed in the Indian football landscape but all of them were for clubs.
The Santosh Trophy was formalised by the Indian Football Association (IFA), the erstwhile governing body for the sport in the state of Bengal, to address the need for a state-level national football championship in the country. The All India Football Federation (AIFF) later took up the responsibility of running the tournament.
The Santosh Trophy is named after the former Maharaja of Santosh (now in Bangladesh), Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury, a legendary figure in Indian football.
Maharaja Roy Chowdhury was one of the founding members of the iconic East Bengal football club, served as the president of the IFA for several years and was one of the biggest patrons of Indian football during its formative years.
Interestingly, the runner-ups and third-placed teams in the Santosh Trophy also receive named trophies. The runners-up trophy is called the Kamla Gupta Trophy and it was donated by Dr SK Gupta, another former IFA president, in memory of his wife.
The trophy for third-placed team is called the Sampangi Cup in memory of Sampangi, a renowned footballer from the Mysore (now Karnataka) region.
The states and Union Territories of India, along with some government institutions like the Services and Railways, compete in the Santosh Trophy.
West Bengal, then named Bengal, went on to win the inaugural Santosh Trophy title in 1941-42 after beating Delhi Delhi 5-1 in the final. In fact, West Bengal are also the most successful team in Santosh Trophy history, having won the title 32 times while finishing runners-up on 14 occasions.
West Bengal also hold the record for the most successive Santosh Trophy titles, having won six back-to-back editions between 1993 and 1999.
Punjab are the second-most successful team with eight titles. Kerala and Services are third with seven Santosh Trophy titles.
The Services (comprising players from the Army, Navy and Air force), in 1960-61, became the first institutional team to win the Santosh Trophy. They are also the most successful institutional team in the competition with seven titles followed by the Railways with three. Services are also the defending champions, having beaten Goa in the Santosh Trophy 2023-24 final by a solitary goal.
Bengal and Goa shared the title in 1982-83 after playing out 0-0 draws in the final as well as the replay. It was the first, and only instance to date, that the Santosh Trophy had joint winners.
The Santosh Trophy 2022-23 final was played in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, marking the first time that the domestic title was decided abroad. Karnataka beat Meghalaya in the final to lift the title after 54 long years.