Keenan Almeida

Keenan Almeida is an Indian professional footballer, who was born on 10th December 1991 in Margao, Goa.

Keenan who plays as a right back for Chennaiyin in the Indian Super League.

Background

In the year 2010, Almeida started his youth career with Salgaocar in both the I-League and Goa Professional League.

Due to lack of playing time, Almeida signed for Sporting Goa and after failing to get regular playing time at Sporting Goa, Almeida signed for FC Goa of the Indian Super League on 18 July 2015.

In the 2016 Indian Super League season, Keenan was resigned by FC Goa and he played 7 matches for the club in the season but could not help his team qualify for the semi-finals.

For the 2016-17 I-League season, Almeida was signed by the newly reinstated I-League club Churchill Brothers and made 17 appearances in the league for his team as they finish a respectable 6th.

Debut

Almeida signed for Sporting Goa before the 2012–13 season, but until the 2013–14 season Almeida could not make his debut for the club.

At the Bangalore Football Stadium, Almeida made his debut on 23rd November 2013 when Sporting Goa took on eventual champions, Bengaluru FC. He started the match and played the full 90 minutes as the match ended 0-0.

Rise to Glory

Being a regular player for Sporting Goa during the 2013–14 I-League season, Almeida rose to prominence when he caught the eyes of the national selectors and with his incredible performance, he was selected for the India U23 side which was the turning point of his career.

Club Career

The defender kicked off his professional career at Salgaocar SC in 2010 and stayed with them for two seasons. In 2012, Almeida signed for Sporting Clube de Goa.

He has shown a lot of promise already but the best thing is that age is on his side. He made four appearances for FC Goa in Hero ISL 2015 and even scored a late equaliser at home against Atletico de Kolkata.

He made seven appearances for the Gaurs in 2016 but switched allegiance to Chennaiyin for the new season.