Sandesh Jhingan

Sandesh Jhingan is an Indian International football player who plays for the Kerala Blasters of the ISL. He was born on 21st July 1993 and plays at the center-back position in the back line.

Hailing from Chandigarh, Kerala has become his second home and he has never failed to impress for the ‘Manjappada’.

He won the Indian Super League Emerging Player of the Year in the first season of the tournament.

He is currently the skipper of Kerala Blasters which has players like former Manchester United stars Wes Brown and Dimitar Berbatov, also made the most appearances for the club.

Background

Jhingan attended his football training at the St. Stephen's Football Academy and performed really well for his side reach as they reached the South-East Asian finals of the Manchester United Premier Cup.

He also won the under-19 B.C. Roy Trophy while representing the Chandigarh state team.

Jhingan received a call-up to attend trials at I-League 2nd Division side United Sikkim in November 2011 and was hence signed by the club the next month. He helped them reach the top division by the end of 2012 season.

Debut

Jhingan was then called up to the senior India side in February 2013 for their preparatory camp but couldn’t feature as he was down with an injury.

In September 2014, Jhingan made it into the Under-23 squad of 2014 Asian Games. On 15 September 2014, Jhingan made his international debut against the United Arab Emirates where he gave away an own goal as India lost the encounter 5–0.

In his debut season of I-League, United Sikkim couldn’t cope with the quality of the top division and was eventually relegated by the end of the season after conceding a league-high 63 goals.

Jhingan was noticed to be a bright talent from the team and attracted offers for trials from the Chinese League One which he couldn’t attend as he was drafted into the Indian football team.

Rise to glory

Jhingan had signed for Mumbai for the I-League campaign and ended the speculations of him signing for Rangdajied United.

He made his debut for the club on 7th December 2013 in the 2-1 win against Pune. On 15 December,

Jhingan received a red card for a second yellow offense against Rangdajied United which ended in stalemate.

He was signed by Kerala Blasters in the 2014 ISL Inaugural Domestic Draft He spent the opening match of the season against NorthEast United on the bench before making his debut in the encounter against Chennaiyin FC, as the Blasters lost 2-1.

He went on to be a consistent player and ended the tournament with not only with the Silver medal but also the "Emerging Player of the League" award.

After a loan spell with Sporting Goa on 8 February 2015, he was retained by the Kerala Blasters for the 2015 season becoming the highest paid Indian player in the league, earning more than 1 crore.

After the 2015 ISL season, he joined I-League side DSK Shivajians on loan from the Kerala Blasters and made his debut on 6th March against East Bengal which they won 2-0.

Jhingan was retained by Kerala Blasters and this time due to over-populated CB position, he was pushed to the Right Back position as Kerala finished at the second place for the third season running.

On 12th January 2017, Bengaluru FC signed Jhingan on a season-long loan deal from the Kerala Blasters. He had a successful season as his team first career club continental match against fellow Indian side Mohun Bagan in the AFC Cup.

On 21st May 2017, Jhingan won the 2016–17 Federation Cup beating Mohun Bagan 2–0 in the final as Jhingan won his first top-tier piece of silverware.

On 8th July 2017, he was retained by the Kerala Blasters for the 2017–18 season after signing a deal that made him the highest earning Indian defender in the Indian Super League club until 2020 after coughing up ₹3.8 crores.

Club career

He played for United Sikkim between 2011–2013 before moving to Mumbai I-League side where he spent his 2013–2014 season. Kerala Blasters signed him on 2014 and made various loan moves to Sporting Goa, DSK Shivajians and Bengaluru F.C in 2015,2016 and 2017 seasons respectively.

Captaincy

Jhingan was appointed the new Indian football team captain on 18th August 2017 after both Sunil Chhetri and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu were snubbed. He led to his side to 3 wins and 2 draws. He was appointed as the Captain for the 2017 season for Kerala Blasters in the ISL.

Records

During 2014 Season, he won the Indian Super League Emerging Player of the Year and All India Football Federation Emerging Player of the Year. He became the first player to feature in 50 matches in the ISL and has made 55 matches for the club, the most appearances for the Club.