Akshay Vilmal Kumar Mall (born 30 September 1992) is an Indian

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 le ...

who plays as a

midfielder A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for

Air India FC Air India Football Club is an Indian professional football club, founded by Anand Prajapati in 1952, based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. They are sponsored by Air India, and have enjoyed some success in the MDFA Elite League. They have also competed ...

in the

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

Career

Early Career and Pailan Arrows

Mall started playing football from the early age of six in his home state of

Gujarat Gujarat (, ) is a state along the western coast of India. Its coastline of about is the longest in the country, most of which lies on the Kathiawar peninsula. Gujarat is the fifth-largest Indian state by area, covering some ; and the ninth ...

. In 2006 Mall represented his state in the

Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy The Sub Junior National Football Championship, also known as Mir Iqbal Hussain Trophy, is an Indian football tournament for players under 16 years of age. The competition is held every year between the under-16 teams representing states of India ...

. Then in 2007 Mall participated in the

Kanga Cup The Kanga Cup is a week-long international youth association football tournament held annually in Canberra, Australia during July. The tournament is run as an open cup consisting of both male and female competitors with teams from diverse backgr ...

which is a tournament based in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

for his club Providence FC who are based in

Vadodara Vadodara (), also known as Baroda, is the second largest city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It serves as the administrative headquarters of the Vadodara district and is situated on the banks of the Vishwamitri River, from the state capital ...

in his home state of

in which after the tournament he was adjudged the Player of the Tournament for under-15 players. In 2010 Mall rejected the chance to sign for Indian football giants

East Bengal F.C. East Bengal Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal (), is an Indian professional multi-sport club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is best known for its professional men's football team that competes in the Indian Super League, the top fl ...

due to the "politics at the club" and instead decided to sign with the

Pailan Arrows Indian Arrows (formerly known as Pailan Arrows) was an Indian developmental football club that competed in the I-League. The club was formed by the All India Football Federation in 2010, with a main goal of nurturing young Indian football talen ...

(then AIFF XI) who were a starter club in the

created by the

All India Football Federation The All India Football Federation (AIFF) is the national governing body of football in India. It is a member of FIFA, the international governing body of football and affiliated to Asian Football Confederation. It is affiliated to Ministry o ...

so young footballers can gain regular time in India's top league. On 3 December 2010 Mall was part of the first ever AIFF XI I-League 18-man squad that played against Prayag United at the

Salt Lake Stadium The Vivekananda Yuba Bharati Krirangan (VYBK; ), commonly known as the Salt Lake Stadium, is an all-seater multi-purpose stadium located in Bidhannagar, with current capacity of 85,000 spectators. Named after Swami Vivekananda, the stadium fo ...

in which AIFF XI lost 2–1.

Air India

After two seasons with

Mall signed with

who also play in the

and he made his debut for the club on 11 October 2012 in a league match against his former club Pailan Arrows at the

in which he came on as an 81st-minute substitute for

Micky Fernandes Micky Fernandes (born 20 August 1983) is a retired India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area, the List of c ...

as Air India lost the match 2–1.

International

Mall made his official debut for the India U16s on 7 November 2007 against Bhutan in which he also scored two goals for India's U16s in the 68th and 83rd minutes to help India's U16s to a 4–0 victory and qualification to the

2008 AFC U-16 Championship The 2008 AFC U-16 Championship was the 13th competition of the AFC U-17 Championship organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), which was held between 4 and 19 October 2008 in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The Qualifiers was held in 2007 from ...

Career statistics

Club

''Statistics accurate as of 12 May 2013''

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mall, Ashkay 1992 births Living people Footballers from Gujarat I-League players Association football midfielders Indian footballers Air India FC players ARA FC players