Dream Believe Achieve: Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu may be from Mohali, Punjab, but he is the goalkeeper for Bengaluru FC and a good one at that! But his real claim to fame is that he is the first Indian to have played a competitive match for a top division European club!
Gurpreet started playing at the age of 8 for his school, St. Stephens Academy. His good performance took him up to state-level U16 and then the I-league team East Bengal. Soon, he signed a professional contract with the team. He was loaned out to the Pailan Arrows in the next season but returned to East Bengal and stayed with them; also playing for the Federation cup, I-League and the AFC cup tournaments.
Seeing his talent, the Norwegian club, Stabæk, soon signed him and Gurpreet played for them for 3 whole years! Soon, he got to play a league match against IK Start, becoming the first Indian footballer to play in a European top division league.
In August 2017, Gurpreet returned to India and joined Bengaluru FC, making his debut for the club against 4.25 SC in the AFC cup knockout and league debut against Mumbai City FC. He has currently extended his contract with the club.
As a national player, he first played against Iraq in the 2010 AFC U19 Championship. In the 2011 AFC Asian Cup, he was selected for the senior Indian team where he debuted against Turkmenistan. He next played the 2018 World Cup Qualifier against Iran. In the next couple of games, he kept a clean sheet and captained the Indian national team against Puerto Rico in 2016. In 2017 he played a vital role against Kyrgyzstan in the 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification game.
