Xtra Time Web Desk : He is the currently the first choice keeper in the Indian national football team. But Gurpreet Singh Sandhu had to wait for 4 long years before getting an opportunity to play for the senior team. Today Gurpreet is the only Indian goalkeeper to pick two golden gloves award. His biggest moment though was when he led India to Asian Cup victory over Thailand . It was after 55 years the Indian football team lifted the Asian Cup. Gurpreet who is spending time in Sydney was in a live chat on Indian Super League (ISL) instagram handle on Monday.
“There is wrong information in wikipedia. I made my national team debut against Iran in 2015 during the 2018 Russia World Cup qualifiers. I was part of the senior team since 2011. It was very frustrating to be on the benches for so long. That hunger was there to be that guy. I think the moment when I joined Stabaek in Norway, I felt that I should get a chance. This is the time. I was the dog on a leash trying to get out and play.”
Gurpreet was the first Indian footballer to play in the Europa league. Sharing his experience the Big G of Indian football said, “I had a feeling before as I played the cup games. In fact I played four games consecutively. When I saw my name in the team sheet, I thought O god. After 13 minutes I went for the 50-50 ball with the opponent striker. I had a fracture in my hand but still played for another 20 minutes. I went off around 40 minutes, But I did not feel bad as it was once in a lifetime opportunity for me.”
Gurpreet is keeping himself busy these days training with his Bengaluru FC teammate Eric Partalu in Sydney. According to Gurpreet,”It is easy to train with Paartalu as we are in the same city. He knows the city very well and knows when and which pitch is free. We meet around three-four days a week. Erik makes me do a lot of hard work. I am trying to work on my passing and working with my left foot. Roy Krishna took advantage of my left foot (during the ISL last season). So I am working on it.”
The 28 year old goalkeeper shared that his first love was cricket.
“I never watched football until 2006-07. My dad wanted me to become a cricketer. His love for cricket is still there. Even I loved cricket. The love for sports started from there. It was just that I picked football. I won a 100m race and that’s how I was recruited at the St Steven’s school academy in 1990. Seeing my height my coaches told me to practice goalkeeping. That’s how it all started.”
The Arjuna awardee footballer reckons current India captain Sunil Chhetri can go on to play for another six years. “He has to play for another six-seven years. He is getting younger day by day. He looks now like a 15 year old now,” said Sunil. It was Kolkata giants East Bengal where he started his professional football career. Sharing his experiences playing the first Kolkata derby, Gurpreet said, “I played my first game for East Bengal against a team from Howrah. The next game was the derby. The first keeper Abhra Mondal was sick. I had a clean sheet in my first match. I saved a penalty as well. Our coach Rider said you are going to start. That’s when I went and played in front of 1lakh people. That experience taught me to play football in an environment like that,” said Gurpreet.
The 28-year old accepted that the loss to Chennaiyin FC in the 2017-18 final of ISL was a huge setback, with Albert Roca stepping down after the final. He even considers the Marina Machans a greater rival to Bengaluru FC than Kerala Blasters. “That was one of the worst nights at the Kanteerava. Losing the final is the biggest setback.”