Full name Gurpreet Singh Sandhu 2000–2009 St. Stephen's FA Weight 90 kg Number 22 Height 1.94 m | Playing position Role Footballer Name Gurpreet Sandhu Career start 2010 | |
 | ||
Date of birth (1992-02-03) 3 February 1992 (age 23) Current teams East Bengal F.C. (#30 / Goalkeeper), India national football team (Goalkeeper) Similar People Subrata Pal, Robin Singh, Romeo Fernandes, Sehnaj Singh Profiles | ||
Place of birth Mohali, Punjab, India | ||
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (born 3 February 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Indian club Bengaluru FC. Sandhu was named captain of the India national team for the friendly match against Puerto Rico on September 3, a match India won 4—1.
Contents
- Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
- Early career
- East Bengal
- Stabk
- Bengaluru FC
- Europa League
- International career
- International statistics
- Personal life
- Club
- References
He is the first ever Indian to play a competitive match for the first team of a top-division European club and the fifth Indian to play professionally in Europe after Mohammed Salim, Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal. He is also the first Indian to play in the UEFA Europa League.
Early career
Gurpreet was born on 3 February 1992 in Mohali, Punjab, India, part of the Chandigarh tri-city. Gurpreet took up the game of football at the age of 8 and joined the St. Stephen's Academy in 2000. After good performances at the St. Stephen's Academy, Gurpreet was selected for his state youth team, the Punjab U16s. He made his youth state level debut in 2006 in Haldwani. He stayed at St. Stephen's Academy till 2009 when he joined I-League side East Bengal as a youth player and spend the rest of 2009 playing for the Kolkata-based teams' youth team.
East Bengal
In 2010, Gurpreet officially signed a professional contract with East Bengal and made five appearances for East Bengal before the end of the 2009–10 season. For the 2010–11 season, Gurpreet was loaned out to Pailan Arrows, seeking regular game time but ended the season with no caps for Indian Arrows, as they were called then. He started the 2011–12 season as the second choice goalkeeper for East Bengal during the 2011 Federation Cup, but after the Federation Cup, Gurpreet took over as the first choice 'keeper for East Bengal's I-League campaign. He started in first game of the 2011–12 I-League campaign in their 0–1 loss to Churchill Brothers. He debuted in continental competitions in Asia on 6 March 2012 in the 2012 AFC Cup against Al-Oruba as East Bengal lost the match 0–1.
Stabæk
Sandhu signed for Norwegian club Stabæk on 15 August 2014. On 18 January 2015, he made his senior debut for the club in a friendly match against second-tier side Follo in a 4–1 win. After featuring in a number of cup games, including Stabæk's entire 2016 cup run, he made his league debut in late May 2016 in an away match against IK Start, in the process becoming the first Indian footballer to play in a European top division league. He left Stabæk in August 2017 to return to India.
Bengaluru FC
In August 2017 Gurpreet joined Bengaluru FC from Stabæk for undisclosed tranfer amount.
Europa League
On 30 June 2016, he became the 1st Indian footballer to feature in a UEFA Europa League match when he started in the away match against Welsh football team and played for 30 minutes in Connah's Quay at Deeside Stadium in Wales.
International career
Gurpreet made his debut for the India U19s against the Iraq U19s in the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification on 5 November 2009.
He was then surprisingly called up to the senior Indian team squad of 23 for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup. He made his debut against Turkmenistan in a 1–1 draw. He was called up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier squad against Nepal but was unused in both legs. Gurpreet made his second appearance for the senior team against Iran in a 2018 World Cup qualifier at Bangalore, starting in a 0–3 defeat. He made his next appearance against Turkmenistan in a 2–1 loss on the 8th of October. He also kept a clean-sheet against Guam on November 12, 2015, a game that ended 1–0. He kept his second clean sheet vs Sri Lanka in a 2–0 win in the SAFF Suzuki cup 2015. In 2016, he captained the Indian national team against Puerto Rico and played an essential defensive role against Kyrgyzstan in a 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification game in 2017.
International statistics
As of 3 September 2016Personal life
Gurpreet is also a fan of former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and Indian International goalkeeper Subrata Pal. He is a graduate of DAV College in Chandigarh.