Nikhil Sharma is an Indian author,

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

and a sports management professional known for his knowledge about

player development Player may refer to: Role or adjective * Player (game), a participant in a game or sport ** Gamer, a player in video and tabletop games ** Athlete, a player in sports ** Player character, a character in a video game or role playing game who is ...

, player psychology, league structures and sustainability in sports. He co-authored his first book India's Football Dream along with Indian author and

political analyst Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and law ...

Shantanu Gupta. He is the founder and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a chief executive or managing director, is the top-ranking corporate officer charged with the management of an organization, usually a company or a nonprofit organization. CEOs find roles in variou ...

of a

New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...

-based sports management company, that specialises in sports infrastructure, player representation, technical consultancy, marketing and sponsorship and media advisory. He is also an

AIFF AIFF may refer to: * Audio Interchange File Format * All India Football Federation, the national governing body of Association football in India Film festivals * Addis International Film Festival, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia * Alexandria Internation ...

, AFC and

FIFA The Fédération Internationale de Football Association (), more commonly known by its acronym FIFA ( ), is the international self-regulatory governing body of association football, beach soccer, and futsal. It was founded on 21 May 1904 to o ...

licensed football coach. Sharma also serves as a faculty for sports communication at Pillai Institute of Management Studies and Research (FIFA/CIES Executive Programme).

Early life and education

Born in

Chandigarh Chandigarh is a city and union territory in northern India, serving as the shared capital of the states of Punjab and Haryana. Situated near the foothills of the Shivalik range of Himalayas, it borders Haryana to the east and Punjab in the ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

to Professor Paramjit Sharma and Ragini Sharma, both of whom hail from Chandigarh. He spent the first few years of his childhood in Chandigarh before his family moved to

Pune Pune ( ; , ISO 15919, ISO: ), previously spelled in English as Poona (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, the official name until 1978), is a city in the state of Maharashtra in the Deccan Plateau, Deccan plateau in Western ...

Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...

. He did his schooling from Vidya Bhavan High School and Loyola Junior College. He has a degree in Production Engineering from

Bharati Vidyapeeth Bharati Vidyapeeth is a private deemed to be university established in Pune, India. Bharati Vidyapeeth has campuses across the country at New Delhi, Navi Mumbai, Sangli, Pune, Solapur, Kolhapur, Karad, Satara, and Panchgani. Among these are B ...

, Pune and is an MBA in Marketing from

MICA Micas ( ) are a group of silicate minerals whose outstanding physical characteristic is that individual mica crystals can easily be split into fragile elastic plates. This characteristic is described as ''perfect basal cleavage''. Mica is co ...

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

Career

Corporate career

Sharma served as the

chief operating officer A chief operating officer (COO), also called chief operations officer, is an executive in charge of the daily operations of an organization (i.e. personnel, resources, and logistics). COOs are usually second-in-command immediately after the C ...

and later as the chief executive officer at Anglian Management Group, a sports advisory branch of Anglian Omega Group. He represented the group with interests in

Shillong Shillong (, ) is a hill station and the capital of Meghalaya, a Indian state, state in northeastern India. It is the headquarters of the East Khasi Hills district. Shillong is the list of most populous cities in India, 330th most populous city ...

-based

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

side Shillong Lajong F.C. on the board of directors. In

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

during the inception of the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

, Sharma in his capacity of director of Shillong Lajong was part of the consortium to bid for the

Guwahati Guwahati () the largest city of the Indian state of Assam, and also the largest metropolis in northeastern India. Dispur, the capital of Assam, is in the circuit city region located within Guwahati and is the seat of the Government of Assam. Th ...

-based franchise of the ISL. The consortium successfully won the bid for the franchise which was named

NorthEast United NorthEast United Football Club is an Indian professional Association football, football club based in Guwahati, Assam that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top flight of Football in India, Indian football. The club was founded on ...

. In April 2018, Nikhil went on to form his own representation and sports consultancy start-up zlait.

Literary career

Nikhil co-authored his first book ‘India’s Football Dream’ along with Shantanu Gupta which was published by SAGE Publications India. The foreword for the book was written by India's most decorated footballer

Sunil Chhetri Sunil Chhetri (, born 3 August 1984) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a forward for Indian Super League club Bengaluru and captains the India national team. He is the all-time top scorer in Indian Super League history. He is ...

. The book opened to favorable reviews in several media outlets including reviews from

Praful Patel Praful Manoharbhai Patel (born 17 February 1957) is an Indian politician, industrialist and sports administrator. He is associated with the Nationalist Congress Party. He was the president of India's association football governing body the ...

, President of the AIFF and

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (born 3 February 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Indian Super League club Bengaluru and the India national football team Sandhu was named captain of the India national team for the ...

India national football team The India national football team represents India in men's international Association football, football and is governed by the All India Football Federation, the governing body for Football in India, football in India. It is a member of FIFA, ...

goalkeeper and first Indian to play in the

UEFA Europa League The UEFA Europa League (UEL), usually known simply as the Europa League, is an annual association football, football club competition organised since 1971 by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) for eligible European footb ...

. The book is a modern-day guidebook to Indian football that extensively covers the journey Indian football has made from its inception till the biggest event till date, the

2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-17 World Cup was the 17th FIFA U-17 World Cup, a biennial international association football, football tournament contested by men's under-17 national teams. Organised by FIFA, the tournament took place in India from 6 to 28 Octo ...

Bibliography

*India's Football Dream (February 2019)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharma, Nikhil 1982 births English-language writers from India Living people 21st-century Indian novelists 21st-century Indian male writers