Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

Early career

Gurpreet took up the game of football at the age of eight 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 until 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 made his debut in continental competitions in Asia on 6 March 2012 in the AFC Cup against Al-Oruba which East Bengal lost 0–1 and played his last continental match of the season against Kazma SC on 9 October 2012 which ended 1–2 with East Bengal losing the game. He played his first match of the 2012–13 I-League season against United Sikkim…

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 called up to the 23 men senior Indian squad 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 8 October. He also kept a clean-sheet against Guam on 12 November 2015, a game that ended 1–0. He kept his second clean sheet against Sri Lanka in a 2–0 win in the SAFF Suzuki Cup 2015. In 2016, he captained the India national team against Puerto Rico and played an essential role against India's 1–0 victory against Kyrgyzstan in a 2019 AFC Asian Cup qualification game in 2017. 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers AFC He featured for India in the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers, where he made his 35th appearance for the team against Oman on 5 September 2019, where he conceded 2 goals as India lost the match 1–2. In the second group stage match 2022 World Cup Qualifiers, Gurpreet was given the captain armband as the skipper Sunil Chettri was out due to an injury against Asian Champions, Qatar. Gurpreet saved 11 shots on target from Qatar attack and became a hero for the team, as India successfully drew the match 0–0…

He was born in a Sikh Jat family in Mohali, Punjab. He started playing football at the age of 9.

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. Sandhu is sponsored by German sportswear brand PUMA.