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MEDAL WINNERS FROM INDIA

YB WEB DESK. Dated: 12/1/2020 11:32:31 AM

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu (born 3 February 1992) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a goalkeeper for the Indian Super League club Bengaluru FC and India national football team. Sandhu was named captain of the India national team for the 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, Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal; the first Indian to play in the UEFA Europa League. Early life Gurpreet was born on 3 February 1992 in Mohali, Punjab, India, part of the Chandigarh tri-city. 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 as East Bengal lost the match 0–1. 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 secondtier 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 against IK Start, in the process.