Records and landmarks
- The first edition of the Santosh Trophy was held in 1941. The Trophy was donated by Indian Football Association in memory of their President, the late Sir Manmatha Nath Roy Chowdhury of Santosh (now in Bangladesh). The runners-up Trophy was donated by Dr S. K. Gupta, ex President of IFA in memory of his wife Kamla Gupta. The Sampangi Cup which was earlier given to the team finishing third was donated by Mysore Football Association in memory of their footballer Sampangi.
- West Bengal holds the record of making the maximum appearances in the final 43 times – winning the trophy a record 31 times and finishing runners up 12 times. Bengal have won the trophy thrice in a row (1949-51), five years in a row (1975-79) and a maximum of six years in a row from 1993-99. Every time the tournament has been held in Kolkata, Bengal have emerged victorious (9 times).
- Punjab have made the final 14 times having won it 8 times and finished runners-up 6 times. They have won back to back titles twice (1984-85) and (2006 and 2007-08).
- Kerala have made 12 appearances in the final having won it 5 times and runners-up 7 times. They won back to back titles in 1991-92.
- Goa have also made it to the final 12 times and have won it 5 times (back to back-1982-83 and 83-84) and ended runners-up 7 times.
- Karnataka (formerly Mysore) made the final 9 times. The finished as Champions 4 times (back to back -1967-68) and runners-up, 5 times.
- Maharashtra (formerly Bombay) have won the trophy 4 times and finished runners-up 11 times, thereby making the final 15 times.
- Railways have made the final 8 times and ended winning it thrice and finishing runners-up, 5 times.
- Andhra (formerly Hyderabad) have made to the final 5 times winning twice and finishing runners- up, thrice.
- Services have reached the final 6 times winning once and finishing runners- up 5 times.
- Delhi won the title once and finished runners-up once.
- Tamil Nadu and Manipur have finished runners up once each.
- Bengal holds the record of the highest victory margin in a match when they defeated Tripura 18-0 in 1974 in Jullundhar.
- Punjab holds the record of scoring a maximum of 44 goals in one single edition which they achieved in Jullundhar in 1974.
- Inder Singh (Punjab) holds the record of scoring a maximum of 23 goals in a single edition of the tournament by an individual which he achieved in 1974 in Jullundhur.
- N.Pagsley (Bengal) – 7 goals vs Rajputana in 1945 (Bombay) and Inder Singh (Punjab) – 7 goals vs Gujarat in 1974 (Julundhar) jointly hold the record of scoring maximum goals by an individual in a match.
- Punjab holds the record of the highest victory margin in the final when they defeated Bengal 6-0 in 1974 in Julundhar.
- Mohammed Habib (Bengal) holds the record of scoring maximum 5 goals in the final by an individual when Bengal pipped Services 6-1 at Nowgong in 1969.
- The first time the final was decided on penalties was in 1985-86 at Jabalpur when Punjab prevailed over Bengal 4-1 via tie breaker. Since then five more finals (1987-88, 1988-89, 1993-94, 2006 and 2008-09) have been decided on penalties.
- The first time a golden goal decided the final was in 1994-95 in Madras when Bengal pipped Punjab 2-1 via Baichung Bhutia’s golden strike. Since then two more finals (2000-01, 2001-02) have been decided by golden goal.
- David Williams (Nigeria) is the only foreigner to play in Santosh Trophy. He represented Tamil Nadu in 1976, 1977, 1978 and Bengal in 1979 and scored 7 goals.
TOP 5 GOALSCORERS OF SANTOSH TROPHY:
- Inder Singh (Punjab): 45 goals
- Mohammed Habib (Andhra and Bengal): 34 goals
- Shyam Thapa (Services and Bengal): 31 goals
- P. K. Banerjee (Bengal and Railways): 28 goals
- Surajit Sengupta (Bengal): 26 goals
- Biswajit Bhattacharya (Bengal): 26 goals
