If that wasn’t enough, he has been ticked off for being indisciplined off the field and also not attending practice sessions. The whole issue went out of proportion during Mohun Bagan’s 17th round tie against JCT where he did not report for training.

Puia, however claims that everything he does is sensationalised. “I had an ankle injury and reported it to the assistant coach,” he points out the Tata Football Academy graduate not even wanting to talk about the severe scrutiny he went through after it was leaked to the press. “I was bombarded with calls. Such incidents affect a sportsman and it has affected me too, but I have taken that incident in my stride,” he adds.

But the one thing he cannot digest and expresses his displeasure saying, “If a junior player fails to perform in one match, he has to face the music but if the senior players go through a bad phase, no one says a word to them.”

Puia says he is ready to shed his perennial bad boy image and wants to come out clean now. “I don’t care about the ‘bad boy’ tag as there is a lot of media attention in Kolkata and they are bound to come up with something or the other,” he quickly adds.

“I’m a simple and religious Mizo boy from a small district called Kolasib,” says the footballer pointing towards his arm tattooed with a cross and a crown of thorns. “I want to start afresh and fulfil my mother’s dream,” he adds. Very few people know the fact that the seed of football was sown in him by his mother’s English Premier League fixation. He says, “I still have fresh memories those good old days when my mother used to accompany me to the Project Field ground near our house.”

Puia has had a lot to think over in the last few months and says, “I was under a lot of pressure throughout the league as I was eager to be in the starting eleven, but hardly found my name in it. The coach did gave me chance in the second half, but it’s difficult to read a match in few minutes and then make a difference. With every match my confidence went down.”

For now Puia wants to start with a new club and says, “I want to play for a side where I will figure in the starting eleven.” But by sitting on the bench too he has learnt a lot and says, “ I’ve seen a lot of quality strikers perform and definitely I have benefited by just watching them.”

But Mohun Bagan coach Carlos Roberto Pereira de Silva states, “Puia got his chance in the local league as Bhutia did not play, but he did not use that opportunity. I understand that things were a little difficult for him as he had to match the standards of Bhutia and Baretto. But he has to work very hard.”