Bengaluru FC sign RFYC starlet Huidrom Thoi Singh

The 16-year-old forward has shown exceptional goalscoring abilities in the past few years.

Indian Super League (ISL) outfit Bengaluru FC have completed the signing of Huidrom Thoi Singh from Reliance Foundation Young Champs, Khel Now can confirm. The 16-year-old forward from Manipur has been handed a multi-year deal by the Blues and will join them ahead of the upcoming 2020-21 season.

"Bengaluru FC have signed Huidrom Thoi Singh from RFYC on a three-year deal," a source close to the developments informed Khel Now. The source also revealed that BFC were originally interested in handing the youngster a five-year contract, but the player himself chose to sign for an initial term of three years. Further, Khel Now understands that three other ISL clubs were also in the race to sign him. But, in the end, it was Bengaluru who secured his services by offering him a project for the longer term. The player himself was keen to choose BFC over the other teams who were interested in bringing him in.

Thoi Singh burst onto the scene at Reliance Foundation Young Champs, where he consistently showed that he had an exceptional eye for goal. Till date, he has played 50 matches for them and netted 45 times. One of his most impressive displays so far would be the U-15 I-League game against Indian Football Academy (IFA) in November 2017, when he scored five goals in a 6-2 win, including a hat-trick in the first half.

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In the 2019-20 Elite League, RFYC finished at the top of the table in the Maharashtra Zone, with 13 wins from 14 games. The youngster played in all of their matches and found the net seven times, before COVID-19 caused the competition to be cancelled.

It is learmt that at Bengaluru FC, the 16-year-old will be slotted into the reserves team initially. However, he will train with the first-team, alongside the likes of Sunil Chhetri, Udanta Singh and Ashique Kuruniyan ahead of the upcoming ISL season and may even get promoted based on his performances in pre-season matches.

Meanwhile, the 2018-19 ISL champions have already started making their mark in the ongoing transfer window by signing Brazilian striker Cleiton Silva and full-back Ajith Kumar, apart from few other domestic players. They have also extended the contracts of Udanta Singh, Dimas Delgado and Erik Paartalu. It will be interesting to see how the Blues' squad shapes up ahead of the new season.