The Other Goalkeeper for Team Bengaluru

An Indian goalkeeper, Shilton Paul has been a part of the McDowell Mohun Bagan team since 2006. He has also represented India at the junior level and hopes to be a part of the senior national squad soon. He hails from Habra, West Bengal and trained for 6 years with the Tata Football Academy. During his stint there, Shilton impressed many and was soon offered a contract by McDowell Mohun Bagan. That team had a plethora of stars like Subrata Paul, Imran Khan and Sagram Mukherjee, making it hard for the newcomer to start at the I-League club. This almost led to him leaving the team, but then the team acquired a new coach – Chima Okerie – who gave the 22-year old player his first chance in an AFC Cup match, where he performed well. Chima gave him a lot of opportunities after that. He considers it a great moment because he performed well when he was finally given his chance. ““They need to work as hard as they can. Goalkeepers also need to concentrate on certain basic things like gripping, jumping etc. They should constantly try to improve on their mistakes and not let failure bog them down,” Shilton says as he speaks about the effort that goalkeepers need to put into the game. The Bengali player has got 12 caps for Mohun Bagan so far.