From farming to keeping goal in ISL

Back in his small village in Kolhapur, people didn't know much about football before Sukhdev Patil, the son of a farmer, made it big in the most played game in the world. The 19-year-old, who helped his father in farming on a small plot of land, got picked for the school football team and has never looked back since. He went on to represent Maharashtra in the Santosh Trophy in 2014 and India U19 in the Asia Champions Trophy and the SAFF U-19 Championships in 2015. He was also part of India U-23 squad for the AFC Championship qualifiers earlier this year.

The talented gloveman got picked for Indian Super League franchise FC Goa last year and is now representing Delhi Dynamos, who played Mumbai City FC at Mumbai Football Arena on Friday.

"I stay in Valvi Khurda village of Kolhapur district, where villagers are not much aware about football. While giving trials for sports in school, I got selected in Krida Prabodhini in Balewadi, Pune. As my parents are farmers, we did not have any idea what football is all about," he revealed.

Coming from a poor background, the shift to Pune for taking up football was a big decision and it came at the expense of sacrifices made by his parents and his sister, who even gave up education.

“At Krida Prabodhini, I only learnt how football is played and how big this game is at the national and international level. That was the beginning of my brush with football and it helped me to develop an interest towards the game,” he added.

He came through the youth ranks at Pune FC academy, DSK Shivajians before joining Minerva Academy in 2015. Last year he moved to the Mumbai based club ONGC and later joined Mumbai FC briefly.

Training with experienced custodians Subhasish Roy Choudhury and Laxmikant Kattimani in FC Goa helped him to grow as a goalkeeper. Delhi Dynamos picked him from the players draft earlier this year and very soon he got his first ISL game on December 6 against Jamshedpur. He came on as a 86th minute substitute for main goalkeeper Albino Gomes. He made his first start in the ISL against FC Goa and it was a forgettable game for his side as they lost 1-5.

"We fumbled at the back," said Dynamos assistant coach Shakti Chauhan in defence of Sukhdev, who made three saves in the match also.

Delhi had conceded four goals against Bengaluru FC as well earlier in the tournament, depicting their problems in the defence. In fact after their 3-2 opening win against FC Pune City, they were on a five-match losing streak before coming to Mumbai.

However, with Gomes out of the reckoning with a knee injury, Sukhdev will be hoping to grab his chances with other goalkeeper Arnab Das Sharma also doing well.

"There has been a tremendous change in football because of ISL. Earlier football was hardly broadcasted on TV. But the way ISL is shown live on TV now, people in my village know about the league," he said.

Recently Aniket Jadhav became a household name in Kolhapur after his exploits in the Fifa U17 World Cup. Patil thinks the  football craze hasn't reached small villages as yet and wants to play a part in it in popularising the game.

"There is a huge craze for football in Kolhapur now. There are quite a few clubs and I am constantly in touch with many players there on how to develop their game. I want to see the boys of the village play like the city boys. I want to train them to do that," he signed off.