James Kithan (born 26 December 1994) 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

goalkeeper In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

for

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 ...

club Gokulam Kerala.

Career

Earlier career

Born in

Dimapur Dimapur () is the largest city in the Indian state of Nagaland. As of 2011, the municipality had a population of 122,834. The city is the main gateway and commercial centre of Nagaland. Located near the border with Assam along the banks of the ...

Nagaland Nagaland () is a landlocked state in the northeastern region of India. It is bordered by the Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh to the north, Assam to the west, Manipur to the south and the Sagaing Region of Myanmar to the east. Its capital cit ...

, Kithan began his career in his native state with Kohima Komets. He soon moved to

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

to play for

Peerless Peerless may refer to: Companies and organizations * Peerless Motor Company, an American automobile manufacturer. * Peerless Brewing Company, in Birkenhead, UK * Peerless Group, an insurance and financial services company in India * Peerless R ...

and then

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

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is off ...

. In 2017, he once again moved south, this time to join Viva Chennai.

Churchill Brothers

Kithan joined

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

prior to the

2017–18 I-League The 2017–18 I-League was the 11th season of the I-League. Aizawl were the defending champions. NEROCA entered as the promoted team from the 2016–17 I-League 2nd Division. The season began on 25 November 2017. Teams All India Football Feder ...

season. He made his professional debut for the club on 2 December 2017 against Shillong Lajong. He couldn't help Churchill Brothers keep a clean sheet though as they fell 2–0. In playing the match, Kithan became only the second player in

history to come from

Gokulam Kerala

Kithan joined Gokulam Kerala in 2021.at first he played

Kerala Premier League Kerala Premier League is a state-level top football league organized by the Kerala Football Association and played in the state of Kerala, India. For sponsorship reasons it is officially known as the Scoreline Kerala Premier League. Structur ...

with their

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players under contract to a club but who do not normally play in matches for the first team. Reserve teams often include back-up players from the first team, young players who need playing time to i ...

. After showing the quality of his

goalkeeping In many team sports which involve scoring goals, the goalkeeper (sometimes termed goaltender, netminder, GK, goalie or keeper) is a designated player charged with directly preventing the opposing team from scoring by blocking or intercepting o ...

, Kithan was selected to the main team of Gokulam Kerala who was going to play the

Career statistics

Club

Honours

Gokulam Kerala *

: 2021–22

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kithan, James 1994 births Living people People from Wokha district Indian footballers Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players Churchill Brothers FC Goa players Association football goalkeepers Footballers from Nagaland I-League players Indian Super League players NorthEast United FC players Peerless SC players Gokulam Kerala FC players