The Indian and Pune FC custodian Subrato Paul wants to accomplish his hat trick win at Kozhikode stadium when he faces Viva Kerala in the I-league second round match on Sunday.
Image not recovered: subrata paulThis is the third time he is visiting the city and in the last two games, one for Mohun Bagan and for East Bengal, his team won against SBT (2-0) and Viva Kerala (1-0)
The national footballer likes Viva Stopper Bello Razzaq’s play. “We are friends and I could guarantee you that he is one of the finest foreign stopper playing in India now” he says. “I have heard that Viva has improved a lot during the last four months and now they are a strong team and it will be a tough match at their home ground”
Speaking about his own team he gets chatty, “The management, training facilities are the best there. We have two grounds to play. The best part is that the management has a vision for next four years and aims for the goals set for that timeline.”
Usually when we play at our home ground we could pull a decent crowd of about 6,000 people he said.
Asked about the changes happened to him after being a national footballer he chuckles and says “I’m Subrato Paul now and before, no change for that”
Citing the reason for his move to Pune FC he says that he had played for two Bengali teams and he needed a change. “The team is very much professional so I thought it will be a new experience here.”
The custodian who loves Barcelona and Liverpool is aiming high- to play abroad in a decent foreign club. “I will never miss an opportunity to play and I will continue to play as much as I can. I really love it” he said expressing his affinity towards the game.
When given a choice to select a position in team other than a goalkeeper he said he would be happy to be a striker.
Being an aggressive goalkeeper he would like to be a striker if given a choice to select any other position in team “I had a chance to score in the Nehru Cup final. If I hadn’t stopped the last Syrian penalty kick, the next chance would have been mine” he reminisced.
Kevin Kishore writes for FootballKerala.com
From the archive. First published on footballkerala.com on Sunday 24 January 2010, restored from the site's 2012 database. Text as originally published.