Indian Footballers of 2023: World-wide attention is paid to events like the FIFA World Cup, UEFA Euro, and Copa America. India also has a lot of football fans. Most college parties include discussions about the best football players and the most famous football teams. It goes without saying that many of us stay up well past midnight to watch football games involving our favourite teams. Even though football is very famous in India, it is sad that our football players don’t get that much attention. Even though there are almost 1.5 billion people in India, only a few thousand people watch the national football team play. If you ask any self-proclaimed football fan, he probably won’t be able to name even five Indian football players. But now we are going to tell you the names of those five players.
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1. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu
The number one Indian footballer is Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, a goalkeeper who plays for the Indian national football team in the international arena and Bengaluru FC in the ISL. His age is 31 years. The player towered over his teammates with a towering height of 198 cm. Sandhu is the only player in ISL history to win the Golden Glove Award in consecutive seasons (2018–19 and 2019–20). In the first match, the team won 4–1 against Puerto Rico. Under his leadership, the Indian team also registered an impressive goalless draw in 2019 against a much better team than Qatar. Gurpreet Singh Sandhu also holds the record of being the only Indian footballer to participate in a UEFA Europa League match. In this he played for Norwegian side Stabæk in 2016.
2. Sandesh Jhingan
When you talk about players for the Indian national football team, you can’t leave Sandesh Jhingan off the list. The center-back Indian defender has been a rock in the backline for the Indian team for the past few years. Young Jhingan played for Kerala Blasters and did a great job. Even though Atlético de Kolkata from Kerala won the championship, Jhingan was highly praised for his play all season and won the award for Emerging Player of the Season. During his career, the goalkeeper has been in charge of the Indian football team a few times. Jhingan was named the Men’s Player of the Year by the All India Football Federation for the 2020–21 season. When he got a one-year deal with Sibenik, a club in the Croatian First Football League, he became the only Indian football player to ever play there.
3. Anwar Ali
At the age of 22, Anwar Ali is one of the key players of the current Indian football team.On March 23, this year, the player made his debut for the national team under current coach Igor Stimac in a friendly match against Belarus. Three months after his international debut, Ali scored his first international goal on 14 June in a 2023 AFC Asian Cup qualification match against Hong Kong.Anwar Ali was diagnosed in 2019 with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a rare form of cardiac disease. A condition in which the wall of the heart muscle becomes abnormally thick and makes it difficult to pump blood. He was banned from playing football by the AIFF. But later Ali got a ruling from the Delhi High Court, which allowed him to play again.
4. Pritam Kotal
Pritam Kotal is an experienced defender on the Indian national football team. He has played for many years both at home and abroad. In 2015, he played his first game for the national team. At the time, Stephen Constantine was the coach. Kotal has won the SAFF Championship in 2016, 2021, and 2023 with the Indian football team. He has also won the Tri-Nation Series in 2017 and 2023 and the Intercontinental Cup in 2018 and 2023. He spent most of his time playing for the Kolkata-based club. In 2015, Kotal helped the Mariners win the I-League for the first time. He did the same great things in 2016 with ATK in the 2019-20 season, when the team from Kolkata won its third ISL title. In 2020, Pritam Kotal will wear the maroon and green shirt once more.
5. Sunil Chhetri
Sunil Chhetri has become one of the best players in Indian football, and this great player plays in a league of his own. He is one of the greatest legendary players of Indian football. Chhetri’s popularity is more than the entire Indian football team. He is known as “Captain Fantastic”. He was handed over the captaincy of the Indian national team after seven years. Since then, he has led India to victory in several tournaments. Helped them win the I-League title in 2013–14 and 2015–16. Apart from being the highest goalscorer for India, Sunil Chhetri is behind modern-day legends Cristiano Ronaldo (123 goals) and Lionel Messi (103 goals) and fourth overall in the history of football. In 2019, he also got the Padma Shri, which is India’s fourth highest award for a citizen.
