#TFGtake: Robin Singh's return to East Bengal brings his footballing journey to a full circle

A YEAR AGO, Robin Singh was on top of the world. He was a well set striker at Bengaluru FC, was scoring tons of goals for India and hailed universally as the new glamorous bad boy superstar of Indian football.

Then everything fell apart during a SAFF Championship match that he played brilliantly, but moments after scoring a goal fell down in agony after picking up an injury on a seemingly light landing.

Many speculated that the injury was a result of an oversaturated calendar, with him hastily shifting between his ISL stint with Delhi Dynamos and national duty. But whatever the case, the result was that he spent almost the entire 2016 away from the action trying ro recover from his injury, and lost his place in Bengaluru FC due to missing an entire I-League season that was attached to the club's historic AFC Cup campaign.

Robin made his comeback in ISL, playing for FC Goa. But he didn't look 100%, which is natural for a player coming back from such a long injury-induced exile. But this put him in a major predicament ahead of the I-League season; he is a superstar striker and does not come cheap, and many clubs were hesitantv in putting so much money on a striker that wasn't a guaranteed instant success.

But then, things took a turn for the better. He got signed by the very club where he first emerged as a senior player and established himself as a top division player, and made a successful case for a national team debut.

East Bengal, who were looking for a capable Indian striking option, took Robin back in. And with that move it seems Robin's career has come a full circle. After starting from East Bengal and reaching the highest level, he must go back to where he started, and prove himself again. To himself, his fans, and the national team head coach Stepehen Constantine, who has made it clear that while he is closely watching Robin, he will only call him up for national duty once he is convinced that the forward has found his lethal touch again; the kind that saw him score wonder long rangers like the one he scored against Guam.