Siddharth Desai Introduction

Siddharth Sirish Desai is a professional Indian kabaddi player who was born on 5 December 1991 in Hundalewadi in Chandgad taluk of Kohlapur district, Maharashtra. He was born into an underprivileged family in a small village that has a population of not more than 300. Siddharth started playing kabaddi from his childhood. People in his village also found pleasure playing kabaddi which gave him exposure from the beginning. He used to play kabaddi in the local fields during his leisure time with friends. During his childhood days, Siddharth was trained by Appa Dalvi who was a well-known coach in his village. Appa was always amazed by Siddharth's performance and guided him to rectify his shortfalls. Siddharth’s friends and family used to call him Sid. Sid’s father and brother are also great kabaddi players. Being raised in a kabaddi heritage, Sid always had a deep desire of pursuing a career in it.

Siddharth Desai Early Career

Sid was very considerate towards his family and wanted a job to support them. He completed his schooling till the 10th standard from Jayprakash Vidyalay, Kini, and then went on to completer his 12th from Shriman VP Desai Jr College, Kowad. He later went to college to complete B.Sc. in Physics and started working in Air India as a contractor. From there, his life changed in unexpected ways. While working in Air India met the kabaddi coach Ashok Sinde. He trained Sid to play for Air India at the domestic level. Ashok was deeply impressed by the performance of Sid and saw a potential kabaddi prodigy in him whose talents should be known to the world. Ashok Sinde with his wide influence pulled some strings for Sid and got him to an auction. From there Sid kick-started his journey of building up a career in his obsession.

Siddharth Desai Pro Kabaddi

In season 6 of Pro Kabaddi, Sid was bid by U Mumba for Rs 36.4 lakhs. The franchise was looking for a potential raider at that time and he was the exact piece of the puzzle. The youngster performed beyond everyone's expectations and made an impact in his very first game with a Super 10 against Puneri Paltan. He bagged 218 raid points and a total of 221 points from 21 matches played in season 6, making him the fastest player in the entire Pro Kabaddi League history to reach 50 raid points in just 4 matches. His performance coupled with defensive efforts of Fazel Atrachali in season 6 took U Mumba to the eliminator against UP Yoddha where they lost 34-29.

He became a sensation in his debut season and was the 3rd highest point scorer of the league after Pardeep Narwal and Pawan Kumar Sehrawat. He was also presented with the best debutant of the year award in 2018. However, U Mumba released their star raider after Season 6 due to his shoulder injury.

In season 7, he was bid by Telugu Titans for a massive sum of Rs. 1.45 crores making him the most expensive player of the season. He was ranked as the 2nd most expensive player in the history of the Pro Kabaddi League after Monu Goyat who was bid for Rs. 1.51 crores in PKL Season 6.

Outside the mat, Sid finds pleasure in playing guitar and he also loves to dance. Sid is a promising and top-class raider that kabaddi world has seen who waited patiently without losing his hope to follow his passion for the game. If he develops his game well for Season 7, it might not be so late before we see him wearing the Indian jersey and taking India to another Gold medal.