Thongkhosiem Haokip

Thongkhosiem Haokip, also known as Semboi Haokip, is a professional Indian footballer who plays for the Bengaluru F.C. as a forward. He was born on 13 March 1993 in Gangpijang village in Manipur. He grew up playing football and represented his state at youth level in the national school games.

He was discovered by the Pune F.C. Academy in 2011 and helped the club win two consecutive U20 I-League titles in 2012 and 2013. He was promoted to the club’s first team in 2013, making his debut as a late substitute on 29 September of the same year against Shillong Lajong. He scored his first goal for the team in the next match against Mohan Bagun at the 72nd minute, opening the scoring for his side which eventually won 2-0.

He made his international debut in 2014 against the Vietnamese club, Hanoi T&T, in a qualifying match at the AFC Champions League but failed to find the back of the net as Pune lost 3-0. In 2014, he was selected for the U23 30-man squad of India prior to the 2014 Asian Games in South Korea. However, he played only one match, a friendly against Pakistan that Indian lost 2-0, and was benched for the entire tournament.

He scored his first hat-trick in senior career against Assam State Electricity Board in a pre-season match of the Bhutan’s Cup tournament, which ended in a 5-0 victory, leading Pune to the semi-finals. He also participated in the season’s Durand Cup and Federation Cup but his poor form prevented him from scoring enough goals and Pune was knocked out in the early stages of both the competitions.

Semboi resurged in the beginning of 2015 as he scored his first senior goal at the I-League against Bengaluru F.C., the reigning champions. Shillong Lajong was his next victim, conceding the player’s first hat-trick in the competition, which was a fast-paced breathtaking feat that took Semboi only thirteen minutes to achieve.

Later, he scored some more crucial goals, including the only one against Royal Wahingdoh, which made Pune the champions of the 2015 I-League. He was the top Indian scorer of the league with seven goals and culminated the football calendar with the FPAI Young Player of the Season award. In July 2015, F.C. Goa signed Semboi on a loan deal for the 2015 Indian Super League season.

However, Semboi did not get any play-time until October when he was put onto the pitch due to injured players. A few weeks later, he created history by becoming the second Indian to score a hat-trick in ISL, which saw Goa devastate Mumbai City F.C. by 7-0. After Goa, Semboi had a few brief stints at Salgaocar F.C., Kerala Blasters and Kingfisher East Bengal before he was signed by the Bengaluru F.C. in 2017.

He has scored three goals in three matches for Bengaluru at the ISL, taking his career total to 24 goals in 80 appearances. He signed a contract extension with the club in 2018, which will keep him there till the end of 2020.