Date of Birth: 02-12-1956

Place of Birth: Dhanbad, Jharkhand

Ranjan brings into the academy an individual experience of working at grass roots and youth development that stretches beyond two decades.

The 55-year-old joined the Peninsula Pune Football Club Academy (PPFCA) in October 2010 with the sole aim of starting the PPFCA project from scratch.

At PPFCA, Ranjan holds the post Head of Youth Development with the responsibility of overseeing U19, U17 and U15 teams with assistants at his disposal.

Regarded as the finest youth development coaches in the country, Ranjan to date has produced 160 international footballers at various levels for the country during his decade and a half stint with the famed Tata Football Academy, Jamshedpur.

Ranjan, a central midfielder during his heydays as an amateur player, has over the years worked in formulating youth development systems with a sole aim of developing raw talent. In fact, at his previous employment he played an important role in setting up India’s first-ever football academy.

Professionally Ranjan has honed his expertise at the Sports University Cologne, Cologne, Germany before beginning his coaching experience at TSV Schonau, Mannheim, Germany in 1987-88 and completed two years.

During the period, Ranjan completed a two-year Trainer Course at the university apart from completing the ‘A’ Licence Coaching Diploma from the German Football Association.

In 1989, he joined TFA as Coaching Director and headed the first revolutionary academy to conducting a 4-year coaching programme in India.

It is prudent to say that roughly, fifty-five per cent of the current players in India have come through Ranjan. Over the past 10 years, the I-League (know initially as the National Football League) has constantly thrown up a Ranjan trainee as its Player-of-The-Year.
That apart all individual toppers - Best Goalkeeper, Defender, Midfielder, Striker apart from Arjuna Award winners had invariably trained under Ranjan.

Ranjan also has in his CV the Fussball-Lehrer-Lehgang (Football Teacher Course), an eight- month duration course that he completed in 1992.

The senior-most faculty member of Pune FC is a strict disciplinarian and a devout scout when it comes to choosing players for his academy. Over the years, Ranjan has developed 10 feeder centers across the country and has won almost every major title in the country.

His passion to work at ground-zero remains his highpoint. Currently, Ranjan associates himself with various faculties in Germany.