Vikram Partap Singh: “I just need to keep doing the right things”

The way I played in my debut season, everyone had a lot of expectations from me. I was not able to deliver on that promise. Whatever I had been doing in the first season – be it on the field or off the field – I did the same things this year too. But I was not getting the results. I know that goals will eventually come, so I just need to keep doing the right things.

Mumbai City FC is a team that wants to win a trophy every year. If I want to stay here, I have to live up to certain expectations. I have been with Mumbai for five years now and am 23 years old. I do not think of myself as a youngster anymore; I tell my teammates also to not treat me like a junior player.

At my age, the work rate is not a problem. But that said, I know that the more I play, the harder I must work to keep up my fitness. How I’m training, what I’m eating, how much rest I’m getting… all those things matter a lot.

I have started working more closely with a nutritionist. We work on what I should eat in general, what to eat before a match, what to eat after a match. Things like that. In the past season, there have been instances when we played three matches in 10 days. So I focussed a lot on my diet to help me cope.

I don’t have a sweet tooth so that’s not a problem. But I enjoy paranthas; I eat them every 10-12 days.

My dad was also a football player, but he played in the local leagues in Punjab. His dream was for me to go outside of Punjab. I started playing football at seven. I was around eight years old when I joined Chandigarh Football Academy.

It (father’s demise) was a very difficult time; I started playing football because of him. More than scoring goals, I used to be happy because I would speak to him after the match.

Mom was always supportive as well, but she didn’t have much knowledge of football earlier. She wouldn’t watch either; she’d say I used to fall a lot.

I was always into football, no other sport. My father only got me started into football. The rest my uncle did. He didn’t play, but he used to watch a lot of European football.

My uncle took me from my village to Chandigarh. We would go train in a local park every morning. A lot of running, working with the ball in the morning before school and then some more training in evening. We’d be at it at 5:30 in the morning, even in winters. We did this for around a year, before I got into CFA.

The semifinal against FC Goa. Coming back from 2-0 down at 90 minutes happens very few times, maybe two or three times in a football career.

After 90 minutes we were feeling a little tired. But that first goal energised us and gave us confidence. We kept thinking we can score a second also. The players who came on as substitutes (Gurkirat Singh, Jayesh Rane) did very well. That day, it wasn’t just one or two of us that were confident, the whole team kept believing we can do it.

That Goa match is a source of inspiration for the entire team. Now if we aren’t doing well in a match, we say to ourselves that if we could come back from 2-0 down after 90 minutes, we can do anything.

I like to be in the right place at the right time. In case someone misses a shot or to pick up a rebound. I work on this in training by doing specific drills. It is not necessary that you have to dribble the ball from the half line, dodge some defenders, and then score. Whatever opportunity you get, you have to take it. I try to be in place for a first touch goal.