Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (; born 3 February 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for Indian Super League club Bengaluru and the India national team.
Sandhu was named captain of the India national team for the first time in friendly match against Puerto Rico on 3 September 2016, a match India won 4–1.
He has achieved several distinctions: the inaugural Indian to play a competitive match for the first team of a top-division European club; fifth Indian to play professionally in Europe succeeding Mohammed Salim, Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal; and the first Indian to play in the UEFA Europa League. He is making the most of his time in the Australian harbour city training under Sydney United coach and former AC Milan goalkeeper Zeljko Kalac.
Early life
He was born in a Sikh Jat family in Mohali, Punjab. He started playing football at the age of 9.
Club career
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 on 10 November 2012 as a substitute goalkeeper in the 68th minute of the game which ended 0–1 to East Bengal and played his last match of the season on 4 May 2013 in a 2–2 draw against Dempo SC. Gurpreet played his first match of the 2013–14 I-League season against Rangdajied United on 17 December which ended 1–2 to East Bengal. Gurpreet played his last league match for East Bengal on 28 April 2014 against United SC, which ended 0–3 with East Bengal taking the win. Gurpreet played his first AFC Cup match 2013 against Selangor F.C. on 27 February 2013, which ended 1–0 to East Bengal. Gurpreet played his last continental cup match for East Bengal on 1 October in a 4–2 loss against Kuwait SC.
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 5–0 victory over IK Start, in the process the inaugural Indian to play in a European top division league.
On 30 June 2016, Sandhu became the inaugural Indian to feature in a UEFA Europa League match, starting the first leg of Stabæk's Europa League First qualifying round tie against Connah's Quay Nomads at Belle Vue in Rhyl, Wales. Sandhu played 30 minutes before being replaced by Sayouba Mandé. Sandhu played his first Norwegian Football Cup match on 4 May 2016 against 2nd division club Bærum SK, which ended 0–3 for Stabæk. Sandhu played his last league match for Stabæk against Lillestrøm SK on 3 June 2017 which ended 2–4 with Lillestrøm claiming the three points. Sandhu left Stabæk in August 2017 to return to India.