Asish Rai (born 27 January 1999), is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a defender for Indian Super League club ATK Mohun Bagan. Club career Early life and youth career Rai was born in Pakyong, a small village in Sikkim. He always liked to play football, even as a kid. He got interested in the game by his uncle, who played football himself. He was selected by a local academy in his state at the age of 12. He travelled to Delhi to play in the Subroto Cup, spent a couple of years there before joining the Pune Academy which was later converted into the Pune City Academy. Since, Pune City already had experienced players in the right-back position, they loaned him out to Indian Arrows. Indian Arrows 2017–18 season On 29 November 2017, Rai was selected to play for the Indian Arrows, an All India Football Federation owned team that would consist of India under-20 players to give them playing time. He made his professional debut for the side on 26 December 2017, against Shillong Lajong. He started and played the full match as Indian Arrows won 3–0. In his debut season, Rai made ten appearances, one in the 2018 Indian Super Cup for the Arrows. Although they finished bottom of the table in the I-League, they impressed with their gameplay and football. 2018–19 season On 5 November 2018, he scored his first goal for the club in only his second appearance of the season against Shillong Lajong, which eventually was the winning goal as the Arrows won 1-0. He featured in all 20 matches of the 2018–19 I-League campaign and also a couple in the 2019 Indian Super Cup, as he became a permanent fixture in the right full-back position. The team improved from the season before and picked up 21 points to finish eighth in the points table. Hyderabad 2019–20 season Rai went back to the reserves team of Pune City, and when the club was dissolved in the summer of 2019, their replacement club Hyderabad signed him for their first team. He made his professional debut for the club on 25 October 2019, against ATK in a 5-0 loss. On 8 December 2019, Hyderabad head coach Phil Brown heaped praise on Rai after he put in a splendid display in the right-back position, in their narrow 1-0 defeat against Goa. The debut season of Hyderabad