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Sports

Meghalaya’s Nongrem, Myrthong Help Minerva Academy Complete European Double at Gothia Cup

By Sentinel NE Desk · July 23, 2026 · 2 min read
Photo: ANKAN via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0). File photo of Shillong, Meghalaya.
View of Shillong, Meghalaya
Shillong, Meghalaya — home state of two of the players who helped Minerva Academy win the Gothia Cup 2026 in Sweden. (File photo: Photo by ANKAN via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)

Two footballers from Meghalaya were on the field when Minerva Academy FC lifted the Gothia Cup 2026 trophy in Gothenburg, Sweden, on July 18, as the Chandigarh-based academy’s Under-12 side defended its world youth title and completed a rare back-to-back European triumph. Mekhamkhraw Nongrem and Donald Myrthong were both part of the squad that beat Brazil’s RS Sports Yellow 2-1 in the final, according to Highland Post, a Shillong-based daily that identified the pair as the “M’laya duo” on the winning side.

Nongrem’s contribution proved decisive. After teammate Thangsanglen Kipgen put Minerva ahead in the final, the Brazilian side equalised before Nongrem restored the lead with a free-kick winner in the closing minutes, according to Khel Now and NewsX. The result meant Minerva successfully defended the Under-12 title it had won a year earlier, retaining its crown on Swedish soil.

The Gothia Cup victory came just six days after Minerva Academy won the Helsinki Cup in Finland, edging hosts HJK Helsinki 1-0 on a 37th-minute goal from forward Rimoson, per NewsX. Winning both European tournaments inside the same fortnight was described by multiple outlets covering Indian football as a historic “European double” for the academy.

Kipgen was named the tournament’s Most Valuable Player in the B12 category, having scored 18 goals in nine matches, an average of two per game, IBG News and Khel Now reported. Across the full campaign, Minerva’s Under-12 side scored 87 goals while conceding only 10, going unbeaten through the group stage, the knockout rounds and the final, according to Khel Now’s match-by-match breakdown of the tournament.

The Gothia Cup, organised annually since 1975 by Swedish club BK Häcken, is widely regarded as the world’s largest youth football tournament, drawing club and academy sides from dozens of countries to Gothenburg each summer. Minerva Academy, based in the Chandigarh-Mohali region and founded by Ranjit Bajaj, has built a reputation in recent years for testing its junior sides against strong European and South American opposition, including a widely reported 6-0 win over a Liverpool youth side.

For Meghalaya, the involvement of Nongrem and Myrthong in a title-winning campaign thousands of kilometres from home adds to a growing list of Northeast India players making their mark through national academies rather than state structures alone. Football in the state has traditionally been organised around district, church and Khasi-Jaintia Hills community leagues; players who move to academies such as Minerva get an early taste of international-standard coaching and competition that is harder to access at home.

Compiled from reporting by Highland Post, IBG News, Khel Now, and NewsX Sentinel NE Desk cross-checked these accounts before publication. Highland Post, a Shillong-based daily, was the only outlet to specifically identify Nongrem and Myrthong as Meghalaya players; national football outlets focused on the team’s overall campaign and Kipgen’s individual MVP performance.

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