Bipin Singh Thounaojam (born 10 March 1995) 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 le ...

who plays as a winger for

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

club

Mumbai City Mumbai City Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Mumbai, Maharashtra that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club was founded in August 2014, during the inaugural season of ...

and the India national team.

Club career

Youth career

At the age of 13, Bipin joined one of Manipur's most famous youth clubs called Wafa Wangoi Club where he stayed for three years. He then moved on to Manipur Police Sports Club where he further honed his skills.

I-League

Shillong Lajong

After years of consistent displays, a 17-year-old Bipin found his way the senior setup of Shillong Lajong for 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 his professional debut for Shillong Lajong 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 ...

on 22 December 2012 against

ONGC The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. ONGC was founded on 14 August 1956 by the ...

at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium when he came on as an 81st-minute substitute for Gbeneme Friday as Shillong Lajong lost the match 3–0. For the first three seasons, he mostly came on as a substitute to replace tired legs or for a change of tactics. He only became a first teamer for the club from the

2015–16 I-League The 2015–16 I-League was the ninth season of the I-League, the Indian professional football league, since its establishment in 2007. The season commenced on 9 January 2016, after the Indian Super League finished, and concluded on 24 April 2016 ...

under the stewardship of head coach Thangboi Singto. It took him over 4 years to score his first professional goal of his career and the club, against

Chennai City Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city A capital city or capital is the municipality holding primary status in a country, state, province, Department (country subdivision), departmen ...

on 19 February 2017, when he curled a sublime effort into the top corner, giving the opposition goalkeeper absolutely no chance to save it. He made 38 appearances for the club in the

, scoring a solitary goal in the process.

ISL

ATK

Bipin was picked up by the erstwhile ATK during the player

draft Draft, The Draft, or Draught may refer to: Watercraft dimensions * Draft (hull), the distance from waterline to keel of a vessel * Draft (sail), degree of curvature in a sail * Air draft, distance from waterline to the highest point on a vessel ...

ahead of the 2017-18 Indian Super League season. He made his debut for the club on 17 November 2017, when he came on as a 74th-minute substitute against

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to as The Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top tier of football in India. The club was established i ...

in a match which finished 0-0. He scored his first goal for the club in only his second appearance, when he curled in a brilliant free-kick which kissed the crossbar and went in. Though Bipin's goal was a mere consolation as ATK lost 4–1 to

Pune City Pune (; ; also known as Poona, ( the official name from 1818 until 1978) is one of the most important industrial and educational hubs of India, with an estimated population of 7.4 million As of 2021, Pune Metropolitan Region is the largest i ...

. He finished the season with 2 ISL goals in 12 appearances. He showed flashes of brilliance and an impressive work rate.

Mumbai City

On 1 August 2018, the Islanders completed the signing of Bipin on a two-year contract. He made his debut for the club against

Jamshedpur Jamshedpur (, ) or Tatanagar is the largest and most populous city in Jharkhand and the first planned industrial city in India. It is a Notified Area Council and Municipal Corporation and also the headquarter of the East Singhbhum district. It ...

on 2 October 2018, which ended in a 2–0 loss. Though playing time was hard to come by for Bipin under head coach

Jorge Costa Jorge Paulo Costa Almeida (born 14 October 1971) is a Portuguese retired footballer who played as a central defender, currently manager of Académico de Viseu. Nicknamed ''Bicho'' (animal) and ''Tanque'' (tank) by his colleagues and fans for ...

for the first two seasons. He started only 6 games of the 22 under him. He scored his first goal for the club during the 2019-20 Indian Super League season on 12 February 2020 against

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

in a 5–2 loss. However, it wasn't until the

2020-21 Indian Super League season The hyphen-minus is the most commonly used type of hyphen, widely used in digital documents. It is the only character that looks like a minus sign or a dash in many character sets such as ASCII or on most keyboards, so it is also used as such. ...

, with Spaniard

Sergio Lobera Sergio Lobera Rodríguez (born 16 January 1977) is a Spanish professional football manager who is the current manager of China League One club Sichuan Jiuniu. Football career Lobera was born in Zaragoza, Aragon. After impressing with Dosa Sal ...

in charge of the club, that Bipin finally came alive. Six goals, including a hat-trick against

Odisha Odisha (English: , ), formerly Orissa ( the official name until 2011), is an Indian state located in Eastern India. It is the 8th largest state by area, and the 11th largest by population. The state has the third largest population of ...

on the penultimate date of the 2020-21 Indian Super League regular season, which also was the first hat-trick of the season, and a dream match winning goal in the 2021 Indian Super League final against

ATK Mohun Bagan ATK Mohun Bagan FC () is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. The club competes in Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. The club, which was formed as a merger between the football section of m ...

, as the Islanders won the Indian Super League Winners Shield and the League title for the first time. On 19 April 2021, Bipin signed a new four-year contract with Mumbai City, keeping him at the club until May 2025. On 14 September 2022, Bipin became the all-time joint goalscorer for

alongside

Modou Sougou Pape Amodou "Modou" Sougou (born 18 December 1984) is a Senegalese former professional footballer who played as a right winger. Club career Early years and Portugal Born in the village of Fissel, in the M'bour Department, Sougou started his ca ...

, when he scored a 90th-minute winner against

Mohammedan ''Mohammedan'' (also spelled ''Muhammadan'', ''Mahommedan'', ''Mahomedan'' or ''Mahometan'') is a term for a follower of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muham ...

in the

semi-finals A single-elimination, knockout, or sudden death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of each match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final matc ...

of the

Durand Cup The Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as Durand Cup, is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Shimla. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and All India Football Federation ...

International career

On 2 March 2021, Bipin Singh got selected for the 35-man-squad national camp ahead of India national team's friendlies against

Oman Oman ( ; ar, عُمَان ' ), officially the Sultanate of Oman ( ar, سلْطنةُ عُمان ), is an Arabian country located in southwestern Asia. It is situated on the southeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula, and spans the mouth of t ...

and

UAE The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (The Middle East). It is located at th ...

. On 25 March, he made his debut against

, which ended as 1–1.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Mumbai City *

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen b ...

League Winners Shield:

runner-up:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; 2022 Sri Lankan protests, Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretari ...

Individual * Indian Super League Hero of the Month: November 2022

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Bipin 1995 births Living people I-League players Indian Super League players ATK (football club) players Mumbai City FC players Association football midfielders Indian footballers Shillong Lajong FC players Footballers from Manipur India international footballers