One of the most promising footballers in the country, Arindam Bhattacharya started playing the beautiful game at a very early age. Now playing in the I-League for Churchill Brothers, the young goalkeeper has his eyes on the Indian National side and world football.
“I started playing at a very young age, maybe 11 or 12. One of my friends use to go for training in the village with the local coach and that’s where it all started,” the Bengal lad was quoted on AIFF.
“Football is everything for me. Whatever I have achieved today is all because of this beautiful game. Without football nothing would have been possible. The respect, love and appreciation is all because of football,” he added.
The youngster graduated from the Tata Football Academy and joined Churchill Brother in 2007. The shot stopper received accolades for his performances during the 2008-2009 I-League when Churchill won the tournament for the first time in its history and the Bengali was named as the “Best Goalkeeper” of the tournament.
The Indian keeper recently agreed to stay with the club for another couple of years. “This is my fourth year with Churchill Brothers and will be happily staying for two more years. I have learnt a lot in this club. Like every player, I have seen many good and bad days but hats off to the Churchill Management who has shown a great amount interest and faith in me. They treat me very good and maybe, the only reason that I decided to stay with the Churchill for two more years is because of Churchill Alemao and his family,” the 21-year-old stated.
The keeper was selected for the National side’s training camp in his very first year at the club. “I got the first call for the India Senior camp in the very first year with Churchill Brothers. I have learnt a lot from my seniors, Sandip da (Sandip Nandy), Subrata da (Subrata Paul) and Subhashish da (Subhashish Roy Chaodhary) have helped me lot in rectifying my mistakes. That time I was not the part of the playing XI for my club but I still got a chance to join the camp and I have always grabbed the opportunity to learn with both hands,” he added.
Due to his gallant performances during the SAFF Cup in 2009, the Indian U-23 team eventually won the tournament by beating Maldives 3-1 on penalties in the final in Dhaka. Bhattacharya was also named as the “Best Player” of the tournament.
“It was great tournament for us and it’s always great to know that, people are there to appreciate for the good work. But to be honest, I think we were successful only because each and every player played his part and we definitely were performing as a team in each game. The defenders were great touch and helped me a lot. Sushil was a great leader as he led from the front. It is one of the best moments that I have had playing football and I will surely cherish this for the rest of my life,” the Indian added.
The Churchill keeper has shown his worth and hopes of playing for the Indian Senior team someday and maybe even Europe.
“I want to play in Europe and for the Senior India team and these are the two main targets for me to achieve in the years to come,” he concluded.