Born in Nigeria, making name in Spain, aiming for India – 17-year-old Krish Senapati

The youngster is currently playing his club football in Spain

Krish Senapati is a 17-year-old striker who currently plies his trade for the Getafe International Squad. Born in Lagos, Nigeria, Krish has Nigerian descent as well as Indian. As a result of diversity at home and in football, he can speak Hindi, English, Bengali, Spanish, and the very basics of a local language in Lagos called Yoruba.

As he gears up for a new season, we had a nice chat with him. Below are a few of the excerpts.

“Living alone in Spain helps me develop as a person”

Both of Senapati’s parents hail from Kolkata. However, due to work purposes, his family moved to Nigeria. Krish’s father works in a juice company called Chivita. There, in Lagos, he started playing football.

“Personally I’ve developed a lot as a player and a person while living alone in Spain. My parents continue to live in Nigeria. Though I do contact them daily via video call.”

“Spanish Football is really fast,” he continued. “It is fast and intense and you need to make quick decisions on the pitch. Obviously, the most famous tiki-taka style of play is implemented which is fun but as I said, good decision-making.”

“Took me too many Emails to Getafe”

Before moving to Spain, he used to play for Barca Academy Lagos. He played there for about a year before the COVID pandemic hit. In 2021, he decided to move to Spain.

“While I was playing in Lagos, I always had big dreams to make it pro. I used to email clubs from each and every division but very few of them replied. The ones who replied said they don’t hold open trials. About time I came across Getafe and found that run an international team for their academy. It took me so many emails to get in contact with Getafe. When they replied, they seemed interested. They gave me two options – either send videos or fly to Spain. I couldn’t fly to Spain so I sent them my videos.”

“Since I’m not an EU/Spanish passport holder, I cannot play for federated teams. So I play on Getafe’s international team which plays in a different league compared to the federated teams.”

Krish Senapati has played at Getafe for two years now and has scored 26 goals in total. Last year, he played a tournament in Barcelona where his side beat Elche CF in the finals. They played another tournament at Malaga and won it. Cherry-on-top, he was the second captain of the team. In his first season, he registered 22 G/A in around 25 games. The second season, as he admits, didn’t go well individually with 10 G/A in as many games. Being promoted as a captain of the squad helped his morale and was a good reassurance of his coaches’ trust in him.

Krish Senapati – Player Profile – Getafe International Squad

“Would rather continue in Spain”

A lot of Indian youngsters play in Spanish divisions but they fly back to India in search of a spot in the Indian National Team. Majority of them get lost and finding a way back gets difficult. In recent times, only Ishan Pandita has been successful in representing the senior Blue Tigers after returning home to India.

“Ishan Pandita is a striker of great caliber. He too played in Spain but moved back to India. As of now, I want to continue playing and developing in Spain and hopefully, fulfill my dream to sign for Real Madrid. On the other note, I also feel that all the other players who flew back to India to play for the national team didn’t have a good plan in place.”

“It happens often that an agent reaches out and says that in exchange for some money, he can get you a trial with the Indian team. There are so many scams like these so one needs to be careful. By the grace of god, it never happened to me.”

“Honestly won’t mind playing for Nigeria”

Krish has been brought up in Nigeria and he has that feeling of ‘home’ there. But he holds ambition for the India call-up.

“I 100% want to make it and play for India. I would like to be the first player to lead India to the World Cup. I want to leave a mark on the country’s history and be an inspiration to many. But at the same time, I honestly won’t mind playing for Nigeria since I was born there. But if I get a call from both Nigeria and India, I would pick India.”