Gyamar Nikum (born 26 October 2004) 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 midfielder for I-League club

Inter Kashi Inter Kashi is an Indian professional football club based in Varanasi, Uttar Pradesh. The club currently competes in the I-League, the second tier league of the Indian football league system. It is the first professional club from the state of ...

, on loan from Indian Super League club Mumbai City. He is one of the youngest players and first from Arunachal Pradesh in history to be selected and debut in the

I-League Qualifiers I-League 2, previously known as I-League 2nd Division and officially known as or Hero I-League 2 (for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp), is an Indian men's professional football league. It is the 3rd tier of Indian football, behind India ...

, at an age of 16 years and 359 days.

Club career

Youth career

Hailing from the town of

Naharlagun Naharlagun is a town situated in the foothills of Himalayas in the Indian state of Arunachal Pradesh. It falls and is administered as a part of Itanagar Capital Complex. Geography It is at an altitude of 155 metres from sea level. Surrounded ...

in Arunachal Pradesh's Papum Pare district, Nikum started playing football at the tender age of 8. By the age of 14, he had played in the U15 sub-junior national championships for Arunachal Pradesh. On 2019, Nikum achieved a career milestone when he was selected for the Arunachal Pradesh team to play in the U18 BC Roy Trophy, where they made it to the semi-finals. It was in that tournament where the midfielder was scouted by

Rajasthan United Rajasthan United Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Jaipur, Rajasthan. Founded in 2018 as ''JECRC CF'', the club academy participated in R-League A Division 2019, and was the inaugural winner. In 2020, ''JECRC CF'' w ...

and offered a chance to be a part of their residential academy in Bhilwara. After impressing then coach Vikrant Sharma, he was fast tracked to the first-team squad.

Rajasthan United

On 20 October 2021, Nikum became one of the youngest players and first from Arunachal Pradesh in history to be selected and debut in the

, when he appeared against Madan Maharaj, at an age of 16 years and 359 days. Nikum had a breakout 2021–22 season, where he appeared in fourteen of their eighteen games as

had a memorable debut season in the I-League, finishing in the top 7 of Phase 1 and qualifying for the Championship stage. In July 2022, Nikum signed a new four-year contract extension with

. On 20 August, he scored his first and the winning goal for the club in a shock 3–2 win over

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 ...

, in the Durand Cup.

Mumbai City

On 22 January 2023, 18 year-old Nikum joined Mumbai City for a reported transfer fee of ₹6–7.5 million on a four-and-a-half-year contract, with an option to extend further. The transfer fee is a record for a player of his age.

International career

In June 2022, Nikum got called up by the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

for the India U20 training camp in Bhubaneswar, Odisha.

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Mumbai City * Indian Super League premiership :

2022–23 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 ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Nikum, Gyamar 2004 births Living people People from Kurung Kumey district Footballers from Arunachal Pradesh Indian men's footballers Rajasthan United FC players Mumbai City FC players I-League players Indian Super League players Men's association football midfielders Inter Kashi FC players