Profile: Dilan Markanday | Indian origin winger at Blackburn Rovers

Dilan Markanday is a former student of Jose Mourinho.

Dilan Kumar Markanday has taken the EFL Championship by storm. At the outset of the 2023-24 campaign, Dilan has started by scoring on his league debut for Blackburn Rovers. Born to Indian parents in Barnet, England – the young winger seems determined to represent his Indian heritage proudly across Europe.

The 21-year-old is a former student of Jose Mourinho and has been making India proud by making major strides in English football over the past few years. If the Indian football team is ever given the opportunity to register POI (Persons of Indian Origin) players into the squad, Markanday would definitely be a major candidate to play for India in the future.

The young winger is definitely a promising player with a lot of qualities in his arsenal. Here we look at everything about the Barnet-born footballer.

Prior experiences

The 21-year-old winger took up a passion for football very early in his life and joined the Tottenham Hotspur academy in 2017 at a ripening age of 15. Markanday kept making waves for the Spurs’ youth teams, impressing at multiple levels over his first few years at the academy.

Markanday represented Tottenham across multiple levels and was a star for more than one of their youth teams. He made 39 appearances for the Spurs U-18 team, scoring 17 goals and providing five assists for them. Markanday made 61 appearances for their U-21 team, scoring 18 goals and getting 15 assists to impress coaches all across the level.

His impressive work was rewarded by Spurs in 2021, when then-manager Nuno Espirito Santo gave him his senior debut in a UEFA Europa Conference League clash against Vitesse. In doing so, Markanday became the first British-Asian, as well as the first player of Indian descent to play for Spurs’ first team.

However, the 21-year-old was unable to impress Antonio Conte after he arrived at the club and was eventually sold in January, 2022 to Blackburn Rovers. He took some time to adapt to the new surroundings and only made two appearances for them in the 2021-22 season.

Markanday scored his first goal for Blackburn in a Carabao Cup clash against Hartlepool United in August, 2022 before being loaned for the second half of the season to Aberdeen. He only made three appearances for the Scottish side in a six-month loan period.

The 21-year-old appears to have returned to the club with reinvigorated zeal. He has had an amazing start to the 2023-24 EFL Championship and inspired Blackburn to win their first game of the season, scoring his first Championship goal in their 2-1 win over West Brom.

Type of Player

Markanday is a natural winger who prefers to play on the right side and make use of his left foot by cutting into the central areas. He has a similar playing style to someone like Bayern Munich legend Arjen Robben – he loves moving with the ball and cutting in from the right.

The 21-year-old is full of trickery in his arsenal, loves moving around with the ball and possesses some impressive close control and slick touches. He is an exciting dribbler, making it extremely difficult for defenders to get the ball from him. That forces defenders to overcommit before he just swerves past them.

Markanday loves linking up with his teammates with short passes and also possesses decent creativity in his game. As shown in his history with Spurs’ youth teams, the 21-year-old has that impressive final delivery in him as he excels with his final third passes and crosses from the wide areas.

He proved his slick scoring ability by slotting home from an awkward angle in the win over West Brom and proved why he can be a quality player for a team like India. The 21-year-old has even received Jose Mourinho’s blessing, with the ex-Spurs boss telling him ‘your day will come’ after that performance.

What can be expected from him?

At the age of 21, Dilan Markanday is still in his youthful years in senior football and has a lot of time ahead of him in his career. He is going to look to enjoy his breakthrough year in English football in the ongoing campaign with Blackburn after making a bright impression in the first game.

With that being said, this campaign is set to be a really long one with Championship clubs having to play 46 league games every season. On top of that, FA Cup and Carabao Cup are also there to be played. It’s safe to say that if he can keep performing at a high level, the youngster will get enough game-time to prove his potential.

He will, however, need to maintain his consistency to keep his place at Blackburn. The 21-year-old should be expected to deliver some exciting performances, with his innovative style guaranteed to torment defenders as he looks to be a menace with his dribbles and clever movement through the right.

The winger needs to be innovative and keep tweaking some aspects of his style to keep up with his form. He needs to be ruthless to deliver goals or assists at a consistent basis for his side and gain the attention of major Premier League clubs.

If he’s able to maintain that kind of consistency to get more than 20 goal contributions, Dilan Markanday can not only help Blackburn compete for a potential Premier League promotion – but also gain attention from a top division club and make his return to the league soon.

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