New Delhi: All India Football Federation on Tuesday officially announced the appointment of Savio Medeira as the Head Coach of the Indian National Football Team. Medeira has been appointed as the Coach till May 2012.

General Secretary of the All India Football Federation Kushal Das Congratulated Medeira on being appointed as the head Coach and said “Savio has been entrusted with this opportunity considering he has already spend three-and-a-half year with the national team and has a lot of experience in handling the National team.”

The newly appointed coach said “It’s a very big honor to lead a country but at the same time it is a huge responsibility and a new challenge ahead of me and I am looking forward to it.”

When asked about the upcoming challenge against Malaysian team, he said “In this kind of situation when there is not enough time for the team to prepare, it’s tough challenge, which I have taken and would hope that the players would give their best and rise on the occasion.”

The Federation also announced the 27 member National Team squad for the upcoming friendly games against Malaysia to be played in Guwahati and Kolkata on November 13th and 16 respectively.

Following is the list of the players who are selected :

Defenders : Raju Eknath Gaikwad, Jaspal, Sameer Naik, Mahesh Gawli, Debabrata Roy, Anwar Ali, Syed Rahim Nabi, Gouramangi Singh.

Goalkeepers : Guirpreeth Singh Sandhu, Karanjit Singh, Subhashish Roy Chaudhari.

Midfeilders :  Mehtab Hossain, Baldeep Singh, Rocus Lamhare, Mehrajuddin Wadoo, Francis Fernandes, Climax Lawrence, Anthony Periera, Clifford Reyes Miranda, Jewel Shaik Raja, Steven Benedict Dias, Lalrindika Ralte.

Forwards : Baljit Singh Sahni, Je Je, Sushil Singh, Joaquim Abranches, Sunil Chettri.