5. Laishram Bedashwor Singh:
The North Eastern part of India has been ever so great in producing talents, and yet another winger from the same region of the country is Bedashwor Singh. Bedashwor was also a part of that U16 squad in 2013, and had also been a part of the ISL side Chennayin FC along with Jerry, Anirudh, and Bodo. Hailing from Manipur, Bedashwor is said to be a raw talent waiting to shine in the near future. The 21 year old winger played his last season for his home state’s club TRAU FC, and will probably also be a part of the team in the upcoming season.
6. Deependra Singh Negi:
I’m sure you’ve heard this name before, along with the name Sahal Abdul Samad. Yes, Deependra Singh Negi played in the ISL, for Kerala Blasters FC in the 2017-18 season. Deependra is currently playing for Hyderabad FC and is still just 21 years old, and hopefully has much more to offer in the coming years.
7. Moirangthem Jayananda Singh: Playing his recent season for Punjab, Defender Jayananda Singh was also a part of the U16 side in 2013. Jayananda Singh was also a part of ISL side Delhi Dynamos FC in previous seasons, and is currently just 21 years old.
Other than these 7 players, few other notable ones are Krishna Pandit, Amey Ranawade, Thoungjam Kishan Singh, and Amit Tudu. Krishna was one of the most promising strikers of that squad, and is sadly not in any top clubs as of now. He previously played in the I-League for Minerva Punjab FC in 2016, and came on a loan spell to Gokulam Kerala FC in 2018, after which he has been quite off the rader, and Thoungjam Kishan Singh, a defender from that squad who was a part of the Delhi Dynamos side, isn’t currently much in the limelight.
On the other hand defender, Amey Ranawade has been consistent in being in the FC Goa squad but hasn’t got much chances to display his talent on pitch yet. So has been the case for another Defender, Amit Tudu, who has been in the squads of Delhi Dynamos FC and currently Odisha FC, but have failed to get much game time yet.
While we keep talking about the U17s and U19s, the limelight somewhere goes missing on these young players who represented our Nation at the age group levels, just 2 batches ago, and are raw talents waiting to be nurtured and brought up to the big stage with some decent amount of game time. We really hope and wish that all these players aged 20-22 prove themselves and bring out their best very soon, and get all the attention they deserve.
On a personal note, I believe every batch produced players for a reason and on the way towards success we must consider all of them together in order to succeed. What I mean is we consider the U18s like Rohit Danu, Vikram Pratap, the U20s like Amarjit Kiyam, Komal Thatal, after the seniors, but What about the U23s in between? Well that might just be the missing link we’re looking for as we move forward, and this might answer many questions, because if nurtured properly, these players can turn out to be Gems for the Nation.
Waiting to be discovered again, that’s all for this U16 batch, which produced our very own midfield hero Anirudh Thapa and goalkeeping sensation Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem. The rest of the lot awaits.