Lallianzuala Changte, the wonder kid in Indian football has stolen all eyes after his brilliant strike against Nepal in SAFF championship on Sunday. The Mizoram lad also set a record in the history of Indian football on Sunday. Changte, the 18 year four months old striker has been the youngest scorer for senior Indian squad, surpassing Bhaichung Bhutia who started his campaign in the senior Indian squad as 18 year and six months old only.
The Mizoram lad who stunned the football fraternity including India’s chief coach Stephen Constantine by receiving a ball just outside the box with an excellent paddling on the ball to deny his immediate defender and then unleashed an outstanding left footer to astonish the Nepal goalkeeper.
However, there is also a similarity of Lallianzuala’s rise with legendary Indian batsman Sachin Tendulkar. This boy from Mizoram had left his residence in Mizoram and was admitted to the under-19 elite football school of All India Football Federation (AIFF) five years ago, just like Sachin who also left his Dadar residence to continue his training. On Sunday, after they humbled Nepal 4-1, Lallianzuala when contacted over phone in Thiruvanantapuram, said, “My father was also a school teacher like Sachin’s father. And he also initially did not want me to continue with football. I have four more brothers but nine of them took up sport as career. So, I stuck to my decision of continuing with football and then after having convinced my father I was admitted to AIFF elite school. From there DSK Shivajians recruited me.”
Changte who had also an excellent show with national under-19 squad in the recently concluded under-19 Asian Championship qualifiers, is a regular striker of DSK Shivajians, the Pune based team that will kick off in the I-League this season.