When he kicks the ball, even the coaches cheer for him and the other players watch in awe. Arjun can easily pass off as an under-8 player but he insists that he is 13 years old, rattling off his date of birth, 9-9-95.

The fact that he possesses a small frame for his age does not deter him from playing a very physical game like football; he closes his eyes while saying: “Football mala jaam aavadto (I like football very much).”

The son of a fisherman, Arjun takes pride in playing the only sport his father, Chandrakant Patil, taught him four years ago. Though his secondary high school does not have a football team, that did not stop him from practising with a ball in a corner of the Colaba Back garden.

It was there that Colaba Young Stars manager Sudhakar Rane spotted him. “I saw him juggling, dribbling at a corner of the ground. I was impressed by what I saw and took him along with me,” says Rane. “That same month in a tournament held at Madanpura, Arjun was named the most promising player in the under-12 age category,” adds a beaming Rane.

Arjun dreams of earning a decent living for his family. He stays at Machimar Nagar, the original residence of the Koli community, and his family is not financially sound to own a boat of their own. His father goes fishing with his elder brother. And some days Arjun goes to Sasoon Dock to deliver lunch.

“Sometimes, I go with my father into the sea for a catch, but I like playing football more,” says Arjun, whose whose mother works as house maid in the Cooperage area and Worli. She used to sell fish earlier, but stopped when she got her present job. “We had seen the worst when my father hurt his toe while fishing. There were seven stitches and he was out of work for a few months,” says Arjun.

Though he is hardly three-and-half feet tall, on the ground, Arjun mesmerises everyone. Out of over 300 boys, Arjun made it to the list of 40 at the selection trials. Former international goalkeeper Bhaskar Maity says: “I can give you in writing that this boy will make it big. He has the skills”.

But Arjun’s dream does not stop there. Having been turned away from the Maharashtra team selection camp held earlier for the nationals, he says: “Everyone says that my height is a problem, but I don’t fear the tall defenders and play my game”.

At a practice session he showed what he could do: He dodged past defenders nearly double his size, ran between the legs of one to sprint across and steal the ball from others.

Yousuf Ansari, another former international custodian was also at the Cooperage watching the under-14 boys practise. He pointed out Arjun and said: “Though he is small built, he has loads of talent”.