Mumbai: Amrinder Singh begun his career with the Pune FC junior team but soon rose in his ranks to be named as deputy to goalkeeper Subrata Paul in their senior team. The 23-year slowly made his way up and is now the team’s mainstay.
He showed his credentials in Bengaluru FC’s I-League triumph and their road to the AFC Cup final recently. He also was part of Atletico de Kolkata last season in the Indian Super League before replacing Paul this season in the Mumbai City FC squad.
Amrinder captained the Indian team at the AFC under-23 championship qualifiers in Bangladesh in 2016. He dwells on his career and other areas in an exclusive interview.
Excerpts:
On the great season with Bengaluru FC and his role:
On a personal level, I am extremely happy with what I have contributed to my teams. And it all comes down to the work you do on the training pitch.
On his AFC Cup experience, where he took breathtaking saves in the first leg semis and made few errors in the second:
The AFC Cup being the continental tournament, one is exposed to a lot of new styles of football and great overseas players. That teaches you a lot. Going to the finals of such a big tournament has been a great learning experience for myself and everyone involved.
On national team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and on when he thinks he can break through in the senior team:
Gurpreet is no doubt a fantastic goalkeeper. When we’re on national duty and we train together, we get to learn a lot from each other. This is not only in the case of Gurpreet, but any other player that you work or train with. For me, I keep my head down and do my best in training. The debut will come when it has to.
On adjustments made from Atletico de Kolkata to Mumbai City:
My season with ATK was my first in the ISL. It was a new experience to see how this league works. This time with Mumbai, it’s been fantastic. The staff is great, the organisation is great and not to forget, my team mates. I was a little apprehensive about coming into a team who are already set in their ways, but they have been extremely accommodating. I think it shows in the performances that I’ve put in. I’m happy to have kept four clean sheets since coming in but now it’s time to continue these performances in the semi-finals vs ATK.
