Lallianzuala Chhangte


Lallianzuala Chhangte is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a winger for the Indian national football team and Chennaiyin.

Career

Youth career

Lallianzuala was picked up by DSK Shivajians's Liverpool International Football Academy in 2014 to play for their under-18 team's debut season in the 2014-15 I-League U19 season by Liverpool youth coaches at the academy. He finished the season as the top scorer in the league with 16 goals and helped his team qualify for the final round where they finished 7th. Impressed with his form, India U19's coach Lee Johnson called him up to represent the AIFF in the 2015 FAM-FRENZ Asia U-18 Champions Trophy season, where the team reached the semi finals before losing to Japan's Kashima Antlers over two legs. He was retained by DSK to play in the re-formatted 2015–16 I-League U18, where he helped his team qualify for the final round again with 9 goals in the Maharashtra zone. DSK finished 3rd in the final round of the plays offs, where he scored 2 more goals, thus taking his tally to 11 for the season.
In March 2016, Lallianzuala along with club teammate Jerry Mawihmingthanga trained at Liverpool's youth academy at Kirkby after impressing the youth coaches at DSK's LFC academy in India.

NorthEast United (loan)

On 16 May 2016 it was announced that Chhangte would join Indian Super League side NorthEast United on loan for the 2016 ISL season. He made his debut for the club on 5 November 2016 against Mumbai City. He came on as a 74th-minute substitute for Robin Gurung as NorthEast United lost 1–0. After NorthEast United failed to qualify for the finals, Chhangte returned to DSK Shivajians, having played only one match for the ISL side.

Delhi Dynamos

For 2017–18 Indian Super League season he was picked by Delhi Dynamos in the draft. He scored on his debut on 22 November 2017 as he started for Delhi Dynamos' first game of the 2017–18 Indian Super League season against Pune City. He failed to score in the next 8 consecutive games before scoring his second goal of the season against Bengaluru FC on 14 January 2018.
In February 2019, Chhangte attended a trial with Norwegian Eliteserien club Viking FK.

Chennaiyin

On 30 August 2019 Chennaiyin announced the signing of Lallianzuala Chhangte on a permanent deal from Delhi Dynamos after a second extended trial with Viking FK failed to materialize into a permanent deal.

International career

Lallianzuala represented India U19s for the 2016 AFC U-19 Championship qualification, appearing three times in a disappointing campaign. He was called up for Indian squad for 2015 SAFF Championship. and made his debut for India on 25 December 2015 against Sri Lanka when he was substituted for Robin Singh in 77th minute with India winning the match 2–0. He became 502nd player to represent the Indian national team. On 27 December 2015, Chhangte scored 2 goals for India in their 4–1 win over Nepal in the 2015 SAFF Championship. With the goals, he became the then third youngest goalscorer for India's senior national team at the age of 18 years 140 days after Jerry Zirsanga at 16 years 311 days and Baichung Bhutia at the age of 18 years 90 days.
At the 2018 SAFF Championship he netted one goal after a 1−0 lead against Sri Lanka helping India to win their first group match by 2−0. In 2019, in the 2019 Intercontinental Cup in the second match he scored a goal after a trail by 0−3 against North Korea but though lost the match 2−5.

Career statistics

National team statistics

International goals

#DateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.27 December 2015Green Field Sports Hub, Trivandrum3–14–12015 SAFF Championship
2.27 December 2015Green Field Sports Hub, Trivandrum4–14–12015 SAFF Championship
3.5 September 2018Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka2–02–02018 SAFF Championship
4.13 July 2019TransStadia Arena, Ahmedabad1–32–52019 Intercontinental Cup