Sandesh Jhingan

Born on 21^st July 1993, Sandesh Jhingan is an international football player from India who plays in the centre-back position for the Indian national team. He originally hails from Chandigarh but Kerala was his second home and he always impressed the fans (Manjappada) with his performance. He was the former captain of Kerala Blasters and has won the Indian Super League ‘Emerging Player of the Year’ in 2014. He played for United Sikkim in 2012-2013 season before moving to the Mumbai I-League side, where he spent his 2013-2014 season. Kerala Blasters signed him in 2014 and made several loan moves to Sporting Goa, DSK Shivajians and Bengaluru F.C in 2015, 2016 and 2017 seasons. He currently holds the record for the most number of appearances for Kerala Blasters. However, he has ended his six-year journey with Kerala Blasters FC in May 2020 to join club abroad.

Some of his major career achievements:

• Part of the United Sikkim FC team that won the 2012 I-League 2nd Division.
• Part of the Kerala Blasters FC that was the runner-up twice in the 2014 & 2016 Indian Super League seasons.
• Entitled as the Emerging Player of the Season for ISL in 2014.
• All India Football Federation honoured him as Emerging Player of the Year in 2014.
• Became the first player to appear in 50 matches in the Indian Super League.
• Made appearances in 55 matches for the Kerala Blasters FC, the most appearances for the club.
• In 2017, he was appointed as the new Indian football team captain in the absence of both Sunil Chhetri and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and led his side to 3 victories and 2 draws.
• He performed at his full capacity with the national team at 2019 AFC Asian Cup in which at the first match against Thailand, India defeated them by a score of 4–1. His performance during the match was praised by many football experts.