Prakash Thorat (born 11 March 1985) is an Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who played as a

forward Forward is a relative direction, the opposite of backward. Forward may also refer to: People *Forward (surname) Sports * Forward (association football) * Forward (basketball), including: ** Point forward ** Power forward (basketball) ** Smal ...

Career

Early career

Born in

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, Thorat started his footballing career as a semi-professional, playing for various

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 ...

state clubs like Deccan XI, Maharashtra Police, and Central Railways. He was also twice the top scorer in the Nagpur Premier League in both the 2010 and 2011 seasons in which he scored seven goals in each season. His best moment as a semi-professional came when he played in the inaugural Aurangabad Premier League where he scored an amazing 13 goals in only five matches. After impressing as a semi-professional Thorat was signed by

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

Air India Air India is the flag carrier of India with its main hub at Indira Gandhi International Airport in Delhi, and secondary hubs at Kempegowda International Airport in Bengaluru and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport in Mumbai, alo ...

for the rest of the 2011–12 season. He made his debut for Air India on 14 April 2012 against

Pailan Arrows Indian Arrows (formerly known as Pailan Arrows) is an Indian developmental football team that competes in the Indian national football tiers. They competed in the I-League. The club was formed by the All India Football Federation in 2010, wi ...

at the

Salt Lake Stadium The Salt Lake Stadium, officially known as Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK), is a multi-purpose stadium, used mostly for football matches, located in Salt Lake City, Greater Kolkata, with a capacity of 68,000 spectators. Named after S ...

. He managed to score a brace in that match as Air India won 2–0. Overall, Thorat played in seven matches that season and then in the

2012–13 I-League The 2012–13 I-League was the sixth season of the I-League, the Indian professional league for association football clubs, since its establishment in 2007. The season began on 6 October 2012 and finished on 12 May 2013 with Churchill Brothers ...

season he made 20 appearances while scoring only three goals. While with Air India Thorat was played mainly as a winger.

Pune

On 7 June 2013 it was announced that Thorat had signed for hometown club

Pune F.C. Pune Football Club was an Indian professional Association football, football club based in Pune, Maharashtra. The club competed in I-League, then top flight of Indian football league system. The club was one of the List of football clubs in Ind ...

in the

on a two-year deal. He made his debut for the club during the

2013 Durand Cup The 2013 Durand Cup was the 126th season of the Durand Cup, the third oldest football tournament in the world, which is a knock-out competition held in India. Air India F.C., Air India were the current holders, having beaten Mumbai Tigers F.C., ...

on 9 September 2013 against Army Red in which he started and played only 24 minutes as Pune lost the match 2–0. He then made his league debut for Pune on 11 December 2013 against Rangdajied United when he came on as an 88th-minute substitute for Thongkhosiem Haokip as Pune lost 3–2.

I-League statistics

References

External links

Pune Football Club Profile

Instagram Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Thorat, Prakash 1985 births Living people Footballers from Pune Indian men's footballers Air India FC players Pune FC players Men's association football forwards I-League players 21st-century Indian sportsmen