‘ AIFF Academy supply line for India’
A day after national coach Stephen Constantine described Pronoy Halder as a “destroyer,” the player stressed that he needed to “stay grounded and not get carried away.”
Reflecting back on his strike against Chinese Taipei in the inaugural match of the Hero Intercontinental Cup where he cut down the left and curled the ball past the diving goalkeeper into the far corner, Halder admitted he “wants to score more like this. I’m very delighted to have scored a goal like that. But I need to be more consistent if I want to score more,” he told www. theaiff. com.
Sitting in the team hotel lobby, Halder, a former AIFF Academy graduate kept going back to his days at the academy under his “mentor” Colm Joseph Toal, the man who shaped many careers in Indian Football.
“Earlier, I used to play as a central defender. But Colm- Sir introduced me as a defensive midfielder. The days at the academy laid the track for me. The discipline which we gathered from him has helped me a lot.
“At that time we all felt that maybe so much discipline was perhaps not needed. But we all adhered to it. Looking back, I understand had he not steered us through the rough waters, we may have all been swept away,” Halder said. “He always used to remind us that he will always follow us playing football.”
Halder graduated from the academy in 2011 along with Kotal, Narayan Das, Halicharan Narzary, Brandon Fernandes, Sehnaj Singh, Bikramjit Singh ( jr) amongst others.
“After Colm Sir, Stephen Constantine is the person who has taught me a lot. I try to execute the plans laid down by him. After coming back from an injury lay- off, the performance against Chinese Taipei was a relief for me,” he added.
The starting XI against Chinese Taipei included seven ex- AIFF Academy cadets.
Added Haalder, “I feel the AIFF Academy has played a major role in supplying players to the national team and it must continue like this. The academy grooms and creates the supply line which helps the player to fit in the national team set up quite effortlessly.”