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Gopal Roy: Prabir Das. The Indian Football fans know this star footballer for his remarkable speed on field during the game, but very few people knows the struggle, pain and hard work of Prabir which have made him a complete footballer today.

When Prabir was in fourth standard, his life was totally different from now. His mother Sandhya Das used to wake up at 4am in the morning as she went to cook at other places for their daily living. After completing her work at five places she then returned to her home to take Prabir to his school at 10.30am. The life was so tough for Prabir and his family that his mother had to go to work again as maid servant after her son entered the school. Prabir revealed an interesting story of that time about how he became very passionate about playing football. When her mother left her at the school, Prabir used to run away from there to play football by using lemons. At the end of the day he returned back with his other friends as if he is returning from school. Finally his mother got to know all these when the exam was nearby and the teacher asked Prabir's parents to meet them. His madam told his mother that the school won't allow Prabir to give his exam as he had only attended the school for 17 days. At the end Prabir's childhood coach Alok Rudra requested the school to allow Prabir to give his exam as he knew that Prabir loves to play football more than his life.

Years gone past and Prabir's love for football kept growing everyday. His coach Alok Rudra was the key reason for Prabir's rise in Indian Football arena and Prabir talks about him every time whenever he shares anything about his early age. Beside his mother Prabir's father too was a hard-working person as he had to feed his two kids. Prabir's father Mona Das was a rickshaw puller and his daily income was just 250 to 300 rupees. Everything was going on the right track, but as we know nothing lasts forever, Prabir's father injured himself one day when he was pulling his rickshaw, but he didn't tell anything to anyone in the family as he thought that it will be ok in a few days time. After waiting for some days he had to go to a government hospital as at that moment the pain was unbearable. After giving an injection worth rupees 1200 the doctors suggested him to admit at the hospital. After that Mona Das had to stay at the hospital for over 6 months and that time Prabir's family had to face a massive financial problem as he was the main earning member of the family. One day after seeing this Prabir's elder brother told him you must continue your game and I will do the work for our family's daily expenses.

In the year 2006 Prabir gave trials at five academies but he didn't get a chance anywhere but his brother told him to continue his hard work as he believes that one day Prabir will dawn the jersey of Indian Football Team. In 2007 Prabir finally got a call up at the Sail Academy. After that nobody could stop him as he got a chance in U-19 Indian team. At that moment he got valuable inputs from National team coach Colin Toal, Sanjoy Sen and Gautam Ghosh which helped him to grow more as a footballer. When everything was going right another blunder happened in Prabir's life. His mother felt sick after a gas cylinder leakage happened at home and Prabir had to return to his home for his mother. After explaining the matter he got the permission to return home from his coaches. At that moment the coaches too had helped Prabir a lot by buying him a flight ticket to Kolkata. Later he got a chance to play for U-19 Indian side.

 After successfully playing for India U-19 Team, coach Colin Toal helped Prabir to get a place in Pailan Arrows so that he could stay with his family in Kolkata. While playing for Arrows he got a huge ACL injury against Prayag United after Tomba Singh tackeled him badly. After that he had to stay away from the game for more than six months. Though after a strict rehabilitation Prabir came back strongly and joined Dempo Sports Club. From there he went to FC Goa on loan but he didn't get much chances in the playing xi as Zico didn't like him much because Prabir disobeyed him for once. In a match against Chennaiyin FC, Zico repeatedly told Prabir that u must not foul any footballer outside our box as Chennaiyin had a player like Elano Blumer who can score any day from free-kicks. On the day exactly that happened which Zico didn't want to see. FC Goa lost to Chennaiyin FC 2-0 and after that Prabir had to sit on side lines for the rest of the season.

The same thing had happened at Delhi Dynamos. Under coach Robarto Carlos, Prabir didn't get a chance to play a single match. After not getting any chance for two years Prabir almost got lost from football arena, when Mohun Bagan coach Sanjoy Sen brought him to play for the Green and Maroon Brigade. Prabir showed his class in the Kolkata League matches in that season, but he was thinking of joining an ISL side. Later Prabir joined ATK and now everyone knows how Prabir is playing for the club right now. He was the key reason for ATK's third Indian Super League win last season, but Prabir hasn't forgotten his root from where he has come.