ISL 2018-19: The curious case of Jamshedpur FC's Gourav Mukhi

Barely two weeks ago, Gourav Mukhi, the young striker of Jamshedpur FC stole the limelight by scoring a goal against Bengaluru FC. According to the Indian Super League website and twitter handle, Mukhi is the ‘youngest player’ with an age of 16 years to score a goal in ISL.

However, their claim attracted immediate controversy as many supporters and statisticians pointed out that Mukhi can never be a 16-year-old guy. The malaise of age-fudging in Indian football reared its head once again.

Mukhi, who had participated in 2015 Sub-junior national football tournament representing his state Jharkhand, was found to be ‘considerably overage’ by the governing body along with four others, and Jharkhand subsequently stripped of the title, which they had won beating Goa 8-3 in the final. Mukhi was already a 15-year-old then. So by now, after three years how can he be 16 years old?

Bowing down to the imminent pressure, AIFF finally said after Bengaluru-Jamshedpur match that they will investigate the age discrepancy of Mukhi. They also said Mukhi bears a passport which shows he was born on 2002, while another document said he is 1999-born.

Despite the controversy surrounding his age, Mukhi impressed in his very first game for Jamshedpur. Battling against a strong Bengaluru team, Mukhi scored a superb goal outplaying Gurpreet Singh Sandhu.

But what is more surprising is that, he was totally omitted from the squad which faced ATK on Sunday. Jamshedpur coach Cesar Ferrando didn’t even put him on the bench. Is he injured? Or is he side-lined because of the on-going investigation? Is the coach unhappy with the situation?

Sportskeeda tried to catch up Jamshedpur Media Manager Souptikk Das but he said he doesn’t know anything about it and it is the coach’s decision before cutting the call. So the questions remain unanswered.

Jerry Lalrinzuala of Chennaiyin FC must still be considered the youngest scorer of ISL till the Gourav Mukhi situation is sorted. Jerry achieved his record when he scored against FC Goa on December 1, 2016. He was only 18 years four months and two days old then.

Komal Thatal, who is featuring regularly for ATK this season, is still three months short of that age and if he scores in the next couple of games, he will overtake Jerry to become the youngest goal-scorer of ISL. But firstly, the matter regarding Gourav Mukhi needs to be sorted.

Till now, neither the AIFF nor the Jamshedpur team management said anything about Mukhi. The sooner they speak up, the better it will be for Indian football.