Born in Australia to an Anglo-Indian mother and an English father, Ryan Williams played for Australia’s under-20 and under-23 national soccer teams. But after a decade playing club soccer in Britain, his career led him to India and a contract with Indian Super League club Bengaluru FC. Last year, Williams gave up his Australian citizenship to become a citizen of India and play for the national team. The 32-year-old forward recently made his debut against Hong Kong in an Asian Cup qualifier in Kochi and scored a goal four minutes into the match. He became the fastest debutant goal-scorer for India and propelled India to a 2-1 victory.
“I have been dreaming about this for a long time and have done a lot of work to make this happen,” he said in a video shared by the All India Football Federation. “You couldn’t write it — in Kerala, the home of football, scoring within five minutes and winning. It just went blurry.”
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge. [Comments? Contributions? Please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.