How Subrata Paul became the ‘Spiderman’ of Indian football

Subrata Paul is one of the finest Indian goalkeepers in recent times.

Subrata Paul is widely recognized as one of the best goalkeepers to have ever come out of India. The Tata Football Academy graduate has enjoyed a pretty memorable career and is fondly remembered for shining in some prominent tournaments for club and country.

Paul made his debut for the Indian national team as a 21-year-old back in 2007. He would go on to make over 60 appearances for the Blue Tigers, but his best moments would come in the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. India had qualified for the tournament after a 27-year gap – but were immediately plunged into the deep waters.

Indeed, the Blue Tigers were placed in a tough group against Asian heavyweights like Australia, South Korea and Bahrain. They were thumped in the first game by Australia, losing by a 4-0 margin. Things went from bad to worse against Bahrain, even though they did score a couple of goals against them – which went in vain as Bob Houghton’s side lost the game 5-2.

To his credit, Paul had actually put in respectable performances in both games – making a number of key saves to deny further humiliation for India. But his career-defining performance would be reserved for the final group game against South Korea.

At this point, India were already eliminated from the AFC Asian Cup and only had pride to play for. The star-studded South Korean side also included a very young Son Heung-Min. The Korean side wasn’t one to go easy on India and wanted a huge win to improve their goal difference.

As predicted, South Korea totally dominated the game but were left in awe of the heroics produced by Paul. The Tata Football Academy graduate proved his quality by moving around like a superhero in the goal line. South Korea managed to win the game 4-1, with Son even scoring a goal, but they had 20 shots on goal – out of which Paul saved 16!

This was the most saves an Indian goalkeeper made in an AFC Asian Cup game and a record unlikely to be broken anytime soon. The South Korean team showed their respect for him afterwards and even their national media were dumbfounded by the lad's heroics. Thus the name ‘Spiderman’ was born.

Indeed, it was the South Korean media that labelled him as ‘Spiderman’ for his incredible reflexes and brilliant saves. Thus Paul was given an iconic nickname which still stands to this day, with many Indian football fans calling him as that.

The Bengali goalkeeper, however, remained humble after getting so much praise and said of the ‘Spiderman’ tag in 2011: “I am not a Spiderman, just a novice learning my goalkeeping. I am happy that I have made those saves and done something for the team and country.”

Paul’s career started to soar after the AFC Asian Cup heroics, as he went onto play for many prominent sides and won a number of championships with India in his career.