XtraTime Web Desk: Pritam Kotal is among those Bengali footballers who have represented Indian Football Team. The star footballer is representing the nation for over five long years, but it’s still a question how he has kept his calm in this time. Pritam himself revealed his childhood story with XtraTime Bangla during a live show.
Pritam has grown up in a football loving family. His father Shiburam Kotal used to take his children to play under height football, beside that Pritam’s uncle Shankar Kotal was a footballer in a first division club at Kolkata Maidan. Though due to poor financial condition Shankar used to play ‘Khep’ during the off season. After seeing this kind of love for football in his family, Pritam’s only aim was to become a professional footballer. He stared playing football at the age of 6 in the neighborhood. Pritam and his friends used to play at Makhla High School ground in their childhood. From that very day Pritam’s love for football has grown day by day.
At the age of 13 Pritam’s father admitted him at Uttarparar Netaji Brigade after seeing his talent. After that he went to Chandigarh to play U-14 Manchester Cup for United Sports Club. Later after completing his Madhyamik Examination he went to Anup Das for futher training. At that time he became quite a known face among young footballers. After his very good performance in U-19 BC Roy Trophy Pritam got a call up at the U-19 national trials. Among 80 footballers, 30 were picked for the national team and Pritam was there in the final squad. He also played in the playing xi as well in the AFC Cup. After playing for India his next assignment was with Pailan Arrows where he played for two seasons. He got valuable tips from Sukhwinder Singh & Arthur Papas at such an young age which helped him to become more composed in his career. From there he returned back home to play for Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan where he successfully spent four years. Though he was an automatic choice in the Green and Maroon Brigade during Karim Bencharifa’s time, but when Subhash Bhowmik became the coach of Mohun Bagan, Pritam got less time to play in the middle. In the meantime Pritam got a call up in the Indian team for the Asian Games. After returning from that stint for Blue Tigers, he again joined Mohun Bagan and this time Pritam won the I-League and the Federation Cup for the Green and Maroon Brigade.
After the splitting of I-League and ISL, Pritam joined Delhi Dynamos, but in the middle of the season ATK brought him back to Kolkata by giving Delhi a transfer fee. As of now he is contracted with ATK until 2023.
Pritam is that kind of a footballer, who doesn’t like to change his club frequently. He believes that if a footballer can play in a club for a long period of time, he can play better football in future. Now Pritam has started a new academy which will produce more bengali footballer in future for India.