‘DIDN’T WANT DHEERAJ TO PLAY FOOTBALL’

New Delhi: India U-17 football team goalkeeper Moirangthem Dheeraj Singh’s parents were against their son playing football, forcing him to turn to his maternal grandmother to buy him training gear. Dheeraj’s father Romit said his son was a bright student and he did not want him to play football as they believed sport wouldn’t be a good career option. “Dheeraj was a bright student and he was a class topper in school. He was at a boarding school and there he was fond of taking part in drama and painting also and even singing bhajans. I was against him playing football. I would not buy his football kits, so he had to ask his maternal grandmother to buy these football, boots and other things,” Romit, who is here with his wife to watch their son play in the Fifa U-17 World Cup said on Wednesday. “His mother was also against playing football but we had to relent after Dheeraj started playing at the national (age group) level. Now, we are happy that he is playing for the country at such a big event. We had never imagined that he will one day play like this and get people’s praise,” he added. Dheeraj, whose heroics under the bar against USA and Colombia, have earned him accolades, hails from Moirang, a sub-divisional headquarter in Manipur’s Bishnupur district. Dheeraj was initiated into football by the locals in neighbourhood. Surendro Singh, who had taken part in the Santosh Trophy times in the 1980s, was instrumental in Dheeraj playing in the state level inter-district U-14 Championships.