Great Maldives!

Great news came from Maldives. This tiny football nation which lost 0-17 to Iran during the Coupe du Monde '98 qualifying round, is now proud of their players after winning the South Asian Football Federation Championship. In the final, Maldives defeated favorites from India 1:0 after a late goal scored by Mukhthar Naseer in 87th minute. That was the first ever international competition won by Maldives and the players were honored as national heroes by the president of Maldives - Maumoon Abdul Gayoom. Each player was given prize money for participation in this historic success.

After the players came back to Male, 15000 fans took part in the celebration organized to honor this triumph. Each of them could take photographs with the cup. The players drove off the stadium by cars painted in national colors and with names and numbers of each player printed on them.

What is more, the president promised that every citizen of Maldives will have a chance to touch the cup, which is now to be shown to the people on every inhabited island.

Here you can see the highlights of the 2008 SAFF Championship final:



Source: maldivesoccer.com/youtube.com