Nora Fernandes, the custodian of Aizawl FC is from such a remote place in Goa where football was hardly existent. Nora is from a village in South Goa named Canacona. 

It was his father Nazarath Fernades’s initiative to introduce practicing football regularly in the village. Nazarath, fondly known as Nazu introduced the game in the village where all the boys including his son Nora used to play barefooted. 

Nora revealed, "My father was a coach of Goa Football Development Council (GFDC). So he started coaching us in the village. I became passionate soon and started dreaming of becoming a professional footballer in the future."

Nora, before joining Aizawl FC this season, represented Churchill Brothers for three seasons, playing I-League. Before Churchill Brothers, he was a regular member of Salgaokar’s under-18 team. 

As a goalkeeper Nora drew the attention of the football fraternity, exhibiting an impressive show in a match against the under-18 national team in the under-18 I-League. Then, playing for Churchill Brothers Nora had a memorable performance in Odisha Cup last year. Nora, making crucial saves in the penalty shoot-out against Gokulam FC guided Churchill Brothers to clinch the title.

The performance helped him to receive offers from a few ISL clubs like FC Goa, and Chennyin FC. But Nora accepted the financial loss and joined Aizawl. He explained, “I would not have had the opportunity to play matches if I had joined FC Goa or Chennaiyin FC. I would have been the third or fourth goalkeeper in the teams. I knew I would have had huge financial gains compared to the I-league clubs. But I wanted the opportunity to play matches regularly.”

The 6 fit 3 inches custodian however aims to show consistency for Aizawl this season to get offers from ISL next season. 

Nora used to play as a forward in childhood. The reason behind his love for goalkeeping came through watching the videos of David De Gea. “I used to watch a lot of videos of the renowned Spanish goalkeeper. Simultaneously, one day I had to stand under the bars in a match for our village team after the regular goalkeeper failed to play the match. Since then my position on the field was fixed.”

Nora did a lot of hard work after joining Salgaocar and Churchill Brothers. Every day he had to travel almost two hours to join training, by bus or sometimes by motorbike. 

Even though his favorite Indian goalkeeper is Gurprit Singh Sandhu, Nora cannot forget former Mohun Bagan and India international custodian Shilton Paul for his contribution in helping him to improve the game. The 25-year-old custodian remembered, “While playing for Churchill Brothers we had Shilton Paul. I learned a lot of things from him during the everyday training. 

Nora disclosed he has an instinct to make saves in the penalty shoot-out. He added, "I do not do any additional training to develop my penalty-saving skills. I only become calm, avoid noise before the match day, and try to increase concentration." 

Nora has another practice before every match. He watches De Gea’s saves to get motivated.