TSP Player Profile - Harshul Pednekar

Today, being Children’s day, its poetic justice that we cover one of our homegrown prodigy - Harshul!!

We have seen him growing and maturing into an integral part of TSP and Amara Football.

Four years ago a 14-15 year old kid who was very good at Cricket, and athletics and used to play at a good level, started coming to the Football ground in rainy seasons, to accompany his friends. He enjoyed playing and his interest kept growing in the game.

You remember Dhoni movie ? The school coach who advises Dhoni to quit keeping in football and consider Cricket professionally ? Well Allen did exactly opposite to that with Harshul. A talented cricketer was asked to come and explore keeping in football. And there has been no looking back since then.

Harshul inherits his interest in sports from his Dad. He is blessed to have a Dad who was also very good in sports, and is wise enough to not force his favorite sport on his sons. Just wants them to pick a sport and be very sincere towards it.

Its an absolute pleasure watching a 14 year old kid grow into a 18 year old who sometimes pretends to be an adult, but the mind remembers he is still a kid :) 

In Season 1 Harshul was a substitute keeper. This did not deter his passion. He was very sincere for training, hungry to learn and kept the atmosphere alive and supportive. And this year Harshul was rewarded to be Vice Captain of Div2 team. Coach Ashu admired Harshul pushing his team mates to do more, to become better. I don’t know if we do justice to the efforts he takes on us. But he for sure has helped many of us be better than we would have been. He understands and values the time we spend together training and for post training breakfast sessions with his friends.

Good at studies too. Scored 75% in 10th standard. His intelligence is very evident on the field too. He knows when to attack, when to hold, and in spite of his young age he is good at guiding his team members to block a potentially good attack.

Harshul is a mix of some known characters -

You can see a little bit of Sid from the movie “Wake Up Sid.” and a lot of Rohit Sharma too. Effortless, very talented and no matter what the situation he’ll always be seen smiling. And still searching for what to do in life, amongst all the things he is doing.

As they say you are the average of five people around you. I think a much bigger impact is of people you idealize. This pic will explain why we can see a little bit of Rohit Sharma in him :) 

He is also an integral part of his gang and so many times goes out of the way for them. Let me not reveal too much of that here. His friends are lucky to have someone like him around them.

His favorite football memory:

Scoring goal for TSP this season. As Harshul himself says “Scoring goal for me was a very big thing. As a keeper i never expected to score goal and celebrate “

THIS IS THE LINK FOR HIS GOAL

Harshul has very “Harshul moments” too. Most of us remember last season when Harshul was playing in one of the matches and Jawad asked him to start the game at the earliest, we were all amused (but not surprised) to see Harshul running towards opposition’s goal post. Referee was clueless but was kind enough to stop the play for Harshul to sprint to the right side :)

Like any young and wonderful kid, Harshul aspires to be better every day. To improve his game, his fitness. And this is the age when one doesnt want to respect any reality check. He wants to be faster than the fastest guy in the team, he wants to out-run those with most stamina, and he tries to out-skill those who are really good dribblers. But that’s the beauty of being 18 year old :) If not now then when, if not him then who !!

Hope he continues to grow and become the rockstar we know he has potential to become. In whichever field he chooses to pursue.

We are his team mates, we are his aged friends, but most importantly we are also his big fans. And wish he achieves everything he deserves, and a lot more.

Connect with Harshul

Instagram

// too young for LinkedIn//