Baichung Bhutia confident of winning Independence Cup

Gangtok, July 29 : Ace football player Baichung Bhutia has expressed confidence of winning the Independence Cup.

"Major plan, first thing is to qualify for the I-League that's our biggest plan and than another major (plan) is to win the Federation Cup. So, these are the big two targets. I think we've got Independence Cup coming that will be a big tournament for us," he told mediapersons at a training session in Sikkim on July 23.

About seven players from Sikkim including Bhutia are expected to take part in the Federation Cup and the I-League tournaments.

Bhutia would be playing for the United Sikkim Football Club (USFC) for which a new player Nim Tshering Lepcha has been selected as the captain.

Three foreign players Bidemi Daniel, Quantum Jacob and Baba Tundey have been chosen in the USFC team along with three national players from Manipur - Sushil Kumar Singh, Gobind Singh and Thor Singh.

Meanwhile, Nim Tshering Lepcha, the newly appointed skipper of USFC expressed gratitude to the club members and Bhutia for choosing him and assured to give best shot in both the tourneys.

"He (Baichung Bhutia) has trusted me as a captain of this team and also gave me captain band with an opportunity to play for the I- League. It's a big achievement for me and I am very much happy for his trust on me. My team and I will give our best performance than last year and am highly thankful to him (Bhutia)," he said.

The chief coach of USFC, Stanley Rosario, also praised the performance of new players.

"Am very much happy with the team also, because it's better than what we had done in last match, three months back. So we took some talented boys and the team looks very strong," he added.