Kerala Blasters: Another chance at redemption for Albino Gomes

Only three years ago, Albino Gomes was the first-choice goalkeeper in the Aizawl team that scripted a fairytale I-League victory. He started all 18 matches in goal as Aizawl, quite remarkably, achieved success. 

Gomes’ career then took a turn for the worse and he is yet to return to his peak in the last three years. Still only just 26 years old, the Goan has now ended up at Kerala Blasters, a club at which Indian goalkeepers have recently had to endure a revolving door and struggled to make an impact.

There is no question about Albino’s talent. The Salgaocar product started his Indian Super League (ISL) career with Mumbai City from where he was sent on loan to the Aizawl team that won the title. He was all set to continue starring in between the sticks at his next club Delhi Dynamos for whom the goalkeeper was an easy choice in the ISL player draft. 

However, tragedy struck his career just four matches into the 2017-18 season. In his fourth consecutive start, the goalkeeper landed awkwardly and had to be stretchered off the field – the injury turned out to be serious and he was ruled out for the season. 

It was frustrating for Albino to spend nearly an entire season on the sidelines. “It felt awful when I walked off from that field in a stretcher against Jamshedpur. I had a feeling that I have a bad injury but didn’t know that I will have to miss so much time. For any player to watch from the sidelines is frustrating knowing that you are helpless and can’t help the team anymore,” he had told Goal back then. 

In the following season also, Gomes struggled to find his feet. He was left to compete with a foreign goalkeeper and the then Delhi Dynamos manager Josep Gombau had preferred fielding Francisco Dorronsoro over the Goan custodian. In two seasons, he appeared in a total of eight matches. 

The third season at the club, which had rebranded itself as Odisha FC, was another shot at redemption for Albino but disaster struck once again. An injury he picked up during the pre-season kept him out of action and he failed to make a single appearance in 2019-20.

The man who kept eight clean sheets during Aizawl’s title-winning campaign has since played a grand total of eight matches in three years, mostly due to injuries. The last few years have been cruel to Albino but as they say, when one door shuts, another opens. 

Kerala Blasters have seen goalies come and go. Since the departure of Paul Rachubka, the Yellow Army has seen Dheeraj Singh (who left to warm the bench at ATK), Naveen Kumar (who returned to FC Goa after playing a bit-part role at Blasters), TP Rehenesh and Bilal Khan (who had seasons to forget) and Shibinraj Kunniyil (who joined from Gokulam Kerala and played zero minutes) guard their goal (or not) with very little success. 

It will certainly not be easy for Albino Gomes at Blasters – they are a team which is going to be under pressure to perform before the ball rolls. But given what the Goan has gone through in recent years, which his back to the wall,  the only way is forward.