Rahul Kumar (25 March 1985 – 20 May 2021) was 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 played as a defender. He began his career with upstart club

Pune Pune (; ; also known as Poona, (List of renamed Indian cities and states#Maharashtra, 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 ...

in 2007 before moving to Kolkata and signing with

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

. He spent one season with Mohun Bagan before signing with city rivals Chirag United. The next year, he moved to Goa and signed with Salgaocar before ending his career with

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 ...

Career

Born in

Chandigarh Chandigarh () is a planned city in India. Chandigarh is bordered by the state of Punjab to the west and the south, and by the state of Haryana to the east. It constitutes the bulk of the Chandigarh Capital Region or Greater Chandigarh, which al ...

, Kumar began his career playing in school tournaments before representing

Punjab Punjab (; Punjabi: پنجاب ; ਪੰਜਾਬ ; ; also romanised as ''Panjāb'' or ''Panj-Āb'') is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia, specifically in the northern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising ...

in the

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state-level football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under ...

in 2005. His performance during the Santosh Trophy led to him signing with new

I-League 2nd Division 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 Indian ...

club

prior to their inaugural 2008 season. He made his debut for the club in their debut match on 26 March 2008 against

Hindustan Aeronautics Limited Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) is an Indian state-owned aerospace and defence (military), defence company, headquartered in Bangalore, India. Established on 23 December 1940, HAL is one of the oldest and largest aerospace and defence manuf ...

, starting in the 2–1 victory. In April 2009, Kumar was part of the Pune side which earned promotion to 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 ...

, the top flight of Indian football, following the 2009 season. After one season in the I-League with Pune, Kumar signed with Kolkata club

prior to the start of the 2010–11 season. Following the season though, Kumar left and joined Chirag United. He spent a season with club before moving to Salgaocar. Later in his career, Kumar signed with

Southern Samity Southern Samity is an Indian professional football club from Kolkata which was founded in 1945, and is also based in Siliguri in North Bengal. During that time, apart from sports they are also involved in various cultural activities. The club c ...

and

. He retired in 2016 due to a physical illness.

Death

On 20 May 2021, Kumar died at the age of 36. Reports indicated that Kumar had been suffering from

liver cancer Liver cancer (also known as hepatic cancer, primary hepatic cancer, or primary hepatic malignancy) is cancer that starts in the liver. Liver cancer can be primary (starts in liver) or secondary (meaning cancer which has spread from elsewhere to th ...

and had recently contracted

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kumar, Rahul 1985 births 2021 deaths Deaths from cancer in India Indian men's footballers Men's association football defenders Punjab footballers Pune FC players Mohun Bagan Super Giant players United SC players Salgaocar FC players Southern Samity players Churchill Brothers FC Goa players Santosh Trophy players I-League 2nd Division players I-League players Footballers from Chandigarh Deaths from liver cancer