Sanjiban Ghosh

Sanjiban Ghosh is a footballer of Indian origin who plays as a goalkeeper. Hailing from Andul in West Bengal, Ghosh was infatuated by the sport when he was 10-years old. He kept the passion burning by playing every day with his friends even though he couldn't afford shoes at the time. Growing up, Ghosh was keen on saving goals than running the field.

He was 13-years old when he finally enrolled in Dukhiram Majumder Coaching Centre in Central Kolkata to train. It is where Ghosh wore shoes for the first time while playing. Since the goalie lived far from the Centre, every day he used to wait at the bus stop for hours as he was aware of only one bus from his area.

In spite of all the difficulties he had to face, he continued his training and developed his skills. So much so that he made it to the Southern Samity squad for the Calcutta League Super Division. The club won the League owing to the goalie’s net keeping. Though he had joined the club, he didn't cut ties with his coaching center and continued to get trained by Sailen Parmanik as Samity couldn't afford a goalkeeper coach.

In 2011, seeing his performance, then Mumbai FC's manager Khalid Jamil approached the goalie and asked him to attend trials for the team. Catching his first flight in life, Ghosh landed in Mumbai FC trials and bagged a spot in the club's squad. He remained with the club until 2016 and created a niche for himself during his tenure. The fact that Mumbai didn't have Goalkeeper coach due to tight budget didn't hinder his development as he trained himself.

His former teammates disclosed about his lone practice sessions before and after the team's routine. Additionally, he used to watch videos of Hugo Lloris and Oliver Kahn to learn tricks of the trade. His initial days were especially difficult for him as found it hard to adjust to the team and he was still unaware of a lot of things relating to football and league standard. He admitted that senior member Abhishek Yadav Abhishek Yadav is an actor, writer, producer and d >> Read More... guided him through everything and turned into a mentor after the latter retired.

In 2015, impressed by his performance against, Mohun Bagan where he blocked a lot of goals leading to Mumbai's win, Stephan Constantine included his name in the Indian Camp for the 2018 World Cup Qualifiers. The same year, Delhi Dynamos loaned both Ghosh and Ishan Debnath in an emergency as their players were injured. The tall goalie impressed DDFC coach Roberto Carlos in the trials and his performance in the matches.

For 2016 season DDFC retained Ghosh. Owing to some issues with the management he didn't appear in any of the club's games. In 2017, Jamshedpur FC picked the goalie from the ISL draft for the 2017-18 season and appeared only in the last match against Goa as a substitute for Subrata Pal. He went on to showcase excellent performance in the Super Cup against Minerva Punjab where he deflected few crucial goals and received Hero of the Match award.

Growing up watching Subrata Pal, Ghosh was excited when he could play with his idol and claims that the veteran goalkeeper was his mentor in JFC, correcting his mistakes and guiding him along with the team's coach Robert Mimms. In the conclusion of the season, he was approached by Chennaiyin FC with a two-year contract with the club which he inked earlier this year. Currently, he is looking forward to his first season with CFC and the upcoming ISL in September.