Vikram Partap Singh Sandhu is playing the best football of his career: he's a regular starter for Mumbai City FC, is ISL's top scoring Indian striker and also made his debut for the national team.
Vikram, though, is far from content.
"I need to score at least 10 goals in an ISL season, that's the minimum. And I want to do that consistently over the next two-three seasons - I don't want people to think I'm a 'one season wonder,''' Vikram tells ESPN days before Mumbai City FC's all-important clash against Mohun Bagan Super Giant on Monday. The winner of the match will take the ISL League Shield of which Mumbai City are the defending champions.
The 22-year-old, in his fourth season with the club, was eager to make a mark this campaign after not having a single start last season. He wanted to shed the "junior player" tag and fight for a spot among the big boys in the starting XI.
"My primary goal was to get into the playing XI. I know that if I start matches, I will score at least every alternate game," he says. And he's done exactly just that: scoring 7 goals from the 14 matches he started this season. When he's not among the goals, he creates them. Case in point: Mumbai City vs Hyderabad FC on April 1. Vikram played the assist for the first goal and won a penalty that led his side to a 3-0 victory.
One of the main reasons for that has been Vikram's switch from playing on the right to a left winger -- a position that he feels naturally suits him. Vikram, during his junior days with the Indian arrows, played on the left but did not get a chance to do that at Mumbai City. Until new coach Petr Kratky came on board.
"I did not get a chance to play on the left at Mumbai, but Petr gave me the opportunity and that was a turning point for me. I see a lot more options from the left and that's led to a huge difference in my game. I can play with more freedom and the way I want to. That, I feel, has made playing more fun for me...and the goals are coming!"
He adds, "I can play on both flanks, but now that I'm doing well on the left, I'm saying it's a better position for me (laughs)."
The fact that he has some serious competition -- from the likes of Lallianzuala Chhangte [India's #1 footballer last year] and Bipin Singh [Mumbai City's all-time top-scorer] -- makes him want to put in the extra yards.
"This competition [within the team] is really helping because I know the day I don't do well, Chhangte and Bipin are around and they can replace me. For example, Bipin came off the bench and scored two goals [against Chennaiyin FC, on February 23], so that puts a bit of [healthy] pressure on me," he says.
The sustained pressure has brought out the best in him as he was named ISL's Emerging Player of the Month for February and March 2024 -- the first time in ISL history that a player has won the award for two months in a row. Along the way, he also became the sixth Indian in ISL history to score a hat-trick and the second youngest Indian to do so.
February 2024 ✅
March 2024 ✅ @VikramPartap06 becomes the 1️⃣st-ever player to win back-to-back Emerging Player of the Month awards in #ISL history! ����#ISL10 #LetsFootball #MumbaiCityFC #VikramPartapSingh | @MumbaiCityFC @WCBMumbai @JioCinema @Sports18 pic.twitter.com/ACRNkIQrJO- Indian Super League (@IndSuperLeague) April 8, 2024
It's also been the two toughest months of his life, personally. Vikram lost his father in January, his biggest supporter. He went on to score a brace against Bengaluru FC three weeks later, and fighting tears, spoke about how much his father meant to him.
"I always dedicate my goals to my father, and he would be the one who would celebrate more at home and everywhere. Whenever I used to speak to him, he would say, 'I had fun watching you play today'. But today, when I make that call home, he won't be there. But all my goals will be for him," he'd said then.
"He really wanted me to perform at this level. I could not do it while he was here, but now I am motivated to do it for him. Unke hote hue kam goal hua, but abhi unke liye karna hai kuch [I could not score as many goals when he was here, but now I want to do something for him," he says.