Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Personal information
Full name Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Date of birth (1992-02-03) 3 February 1992[1]
Place of birth Chamkaur Sahib,[1] Punjab, India
Height 1.94 m (6 ft 4 in)[2][3]
Playing position Goalkeeper
Club information
Current team
 Stabæk
Number 22
Youth career
2000–2009 St. Stephen's FA
2009–2010 East Bengal
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2009–2014 East Bengal 27 (0)
2010–2011 → Pailan Arrows (loan) 0 (0)
2014– Stabæk 1 (0)
National team‡
2010 India U19 10 (0)
2010–2012 India U23 9 (0)
2011– India 13 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 17:10, 7 June 2016 (UTC).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 17:14, 3 September 2016 (UTC)

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (born 3 February 1992 in Punjab, India) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Norwegian Tippeligaen club Stabæk and is the current captain[4] of the India national team.[5] 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.[6]

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.[7] 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.[7] 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.[8]

Career

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.[9] 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.[10]

Stabæk

Sandhu signed for Norwegian club Stabæk on 15 August 2014.[5][11] 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.[12] After featuring in a number of cup games, including Stabæk's entire 2016 cup run,[13] 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.[14]

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.[15]

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.[16]

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.[2] He was called up to the 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifier squad against Nepal but was unused in both legs.[17] 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.[18] 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

International statistics

As of 3 September 2016[19]
National teamYearAppsGoals
India
201110
201560
201660
Total 130

Personal life

Gurpreet is also a fan of former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and Indian International goalkeeper Subrata Pal.[7] He is a graduate of DAV College in Chandigarh.

Singh Sandhu with fans after a friendly in Portland.

Career statistics

Club

As of match played 2 July 2016[3][20][21]
Club Season League Cup [22] Other [23] Continental [24] Total
DivisionAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoalsAppsGoals
East Bengal 2009–10 I-League500000——50
2011–12 I-League0000004040
2012–13 I-League140000070210
2013–14 I-League80005000130
Pailan Arrows (loan) 2010–11 I-League000000——00
Stabæk 2014 Tippeligaen000000——00
2015 Tippeligaen001000——10
2016 Tippeligaen1020001040
Career total 2803050120480

References

  1. 1 2 "Gurpreet Singh Sandhu". Stabæk. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  2. 1 2 "turkmenistan 1 india 1". soccerway. Retrieved 8 May 2013.
  3. 1 2 http://www.soccerpunter.com/players/165337-Gurpreet-Singh-Sandhu
  4. ↑ GURPREET NAMED AS CAPTAIN. the-aiff.com
  5. 1 2 Sandhu, Gurpreet Singh (15 August 2014). "-A proud day for my country and for me as I am pleased to announce I have signed for kkk@stabaekfc". twitter.com. Retrieved 15 August 2014.
  6. ↑ Constantine has made an impact on ‘character building:’ Gurpreet. AIFF
  7. 1 2 3 FS Sports. "Gurpreet Singh Sandu". FS Sports. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  8. ↑ East Bengal: The Real Power. "East Bengal signs India u-19 Goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu". East Bengal: The Real Power. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  9. ↑ goal.com. "East Bengal 0–1 Churchill Brothers: Opara's First Half-Strike Enough For The Goans To Register An Away Victory". goal.com. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  10. ↑ goal.com. "East Bengal 0–1 Al Orouba: The Red and Gold pay for a defensive lapse in spite of being the superior team in both halves.He had by then became hero by saving in the tie-breaks in Super Cup and IfA Shield". goal.com. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  11. ↑ Basu, Hindol. "Gurpreet Signs 3-year deal with Norwegian football club". Times of India. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
  12. ↑ "Gurpreet Singh Sandhu Is The First Indian Footballer In 79 Years To Play For A Proper European Club". India Times. Retrieved 20 January 2015.
  13. ↑ Strømnes, André; Waagsether, Simen Solum (27 May 2016). "- Singh bør spille på førstelaget". Budstikka (in Norwegian).
  14. ↑ "Gurpreet Singh Sandhu becomes the first Indian to play in European top flight". Football Channel Asia. 2 June 2016. Retrieved 2 June 2016.
  15. ↑ http://indianexpress.com/article/sports/football/gurpreet-singh-sandhu-makes-his-europa-league-bow-2886997/
  16. ↑ the-afc.com. "AFC U19 CHAMPIONSHIP 2010 MATCH SUMMARY". the-afc.com. Retrieved 10 March 2012.
  17. ↑ Bera, Kaustav (2 March 2015). "Constantine selects final 26-man India shortlist for 2018 World Cup qualifier against Nepal". Goal.com.
  18. ↑ http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/matches/round=275171/match=300317458/index.html
  19. ↑ "Gurpreet Singh Sandhu". National Football Teams. Retrieved 3 September 2016.
  20. ↑ Gurpreet Singh Sandhu profile at Soccerway
  21. ↑ http://www.national-football-teams.com/player/42773/Gurpreet_Singh_Sandhu.html
  22. ↑ includes Indian Federation Cup and Norwegian Football Cup
  23. ↑ includes IFA Shield
  24. ↑ includes AFC Cup, AFC Champions League and UEFA Europa League

External links

Sporting positions
Preceded by
Sunil Chhetri		 Captain of India national football team
2016– 		Succeeded by
Incumbent
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