Pranav Sundarraman: India's midfielder-turned-keeper is in love with defence

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The dream of an aspiring footballer to represent the nation comes with a certain visualization of scoring a goal in national colours. But in the case of India's youngster Pranav Sundarraman, the wishes are a bit different.

Goalkeeper Pranav Sundarraman is one of the 10 players, who have been inducted into the Indian squad that will participate in the AFC U-17 Asian Cup after the Qualifiers last year, and has improved at every step since then.

However, what sets him apart from most other teenagers of his age is that Pranav derives immense pleasure from thwarting the efforts of attacking players, rather than from scoring himself.

Indeed, when the young custodian was even younger, he had started out as a midfielder, but his love for the dark arts of defence got the better of him.

"Yes, when I had initially joined the academy, I had started out as a midfielder, but as I kept playing, I realised that I had more fun stopping other people from scoring, than I did from scoring myself, or from setting up a goal for my teammates," Pranav told the-aiff.com.

"I guess, in a way, the whole point of football is for the fans to come and see good attacking football, and to see beautiful goals," he laughed. "But for me, it's the exact opposite. I enjoy saving goals more than scoring. It's not an easy feeling to describe. You either get it, or you don't."

His coaches at the Bengaluru academy took notice of his propensity to keep the ball out of the net, and soon decided to give Pranav a more direct role as a protector of the goal.

"Yes, when I had initially joined the academy, I had started out as a midfielder, but as I kept playing, I realised that I had more fun stopping other people from scoring, than I did from scoring myself, or from setting up a goal for my teammates," Pranav told the-aiff.com.

"I guess, in a way, the whole point of football is for the fans to come and see good attacking football, and to see beautiful goals," he laughed. "But for me, it's the exact opposite. I enjoy saving goals more than scoring. It's not an easy feeling to describe. You either get it, or you don't."

His coaches at the Bengaluru academy took notice of his propensity to keep the ball out of the net, and soon decided to give Pranav a more direct role as a protector of the goal.