Midfielder Eugeneson Lyngdoh was the toast of the Bengaluru FC Awards Night when he bagged both, the Fans’ Player of the Year as well as the Players’ Player of the Year awards as the Blues recognised and rewarded the team for what was a second successful season at hotel JW Marriott, in Bengaluru, on Monday.

Rino Anto’s 70-yard sprint into the Sporting Clube de Goa box before meeting Sean Rooney’s lay off and scoring, won the right-back the Goal of the Year gong while Sunil Chhetri made it two in two seasons ending top scorer of the year with 11 goals.

Now an annual affair, the BFC Awards Night was attended by Sajjan Jindal, Chairman and Managing Director of the JSW Group, Sangita Jindal, Parth Jindal, CEO of Bengaluru FC along with families of the players and staff. Billiards and snooker ace, Pankaj Advani, former athlete Reeth Abraham, former India cricketer Sunil Joshi and minister for higher education and tourism, RV Deshpande were among the many guests for the night.

Bengaluru FC’s focus on a strong academy set up saw the club recognise striker Akshay Kumar as the Under-19 Player of the Year.

Lyngdoh, who capped an outstanding debut season for the Blues with 8 goals and 16 assists, garnered an excess of 20,000 votes on the club’s online poll that let fans make their choice. His teammates too backed his performances with votes enough to land him his second accolade of the night. “It’s been a pleasure, my first year at BFC, and everything I am able to do is because of my teammates and the fans. The fact that they think I am worthy of this award makes it even more special. I hope to have many successful seasons at this club and cannot thank Ashley Westwood and Pradhyum Reddy for the chance they have handed me,” said Lyngdoh on picking up his awards.

Multilingual singer Natalie Di Luccio and her band made for entertainment on a night that was peppered with speeches, players exercising their vocal chords courtesy impromptu requests and a vow from the Blues to leave no stone unturned in their quest to bring the I-League title that they narrowly missed out on, back to Bengaluru.