About

Jewel Raja started off as a winger but his father prevailed upon him to switch to the central midfield as his elder brother, Tarif Ahmed, who has also represented India, was already making himself at home in that position. Having represented the India under-19 team, Jewel continued his impressive performance in the domestic circuit with ONGC, Mohun Bagan and Dempo in the I-League. He got himself into the national limelight with his first international goal against Singapore in the 2010 Asian Games and has represented India from the under-19 level upwards and at the 2010 Asian Games and 2012 Olympic qualifiers. His senior appearances have been at the SAFF Cup, AFC Challenge Cup, Nehru Cup etc. The midfielder kick-started FC Goa's resurgence in Hero ISL 2014 when he scored the equalizer for Zico's men in a 2-1 win over Delhi Dynamos. He made a handful of appearances for Atletico de Kolkata in Hero ISL 2015 and made seven for them in their title-winning season wherein he scored the winning penalty in the finals. Now at Pune, he will look to play a pivotal role in their campaign.