List of India national football team captains

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This article lists all the captains of the India national football team .

Contents

The first India captain in their maiden international tour was Gostha Pal, [1] organised under the control of Indian Football Association (Bengal) before the formation of All India Football Federation in 1937. The first captain to lead India in their first AIFF organised international tour was Karuna Bhattacharya, [2] [3] who captained India in their first international match against Australia on 3 September 1938.

The following table includes players who have captained the India national football team, along with the vice-captains and the international tournaments they led in. [4] [5]

List of captains

TenureIncumbentVice-captainsTournaments/NotesRef
1924Mani DasCalcutta Indians / IFA XI
IFA organised national teams
[6]
1926 Syed Abdus Samad Calcutta Wanderers / IFA XI [7]
1933 Gostha Pal Sanmatha Dutta,
Karuna Bhattacharya
All India XI / IFA XI
1st all-India national team organised by IFA
[8]
1934–36Sanmatha DuttaAll India XI / IFA XI [9]
1938 Karuna Bhattacharya 1st AIFF organised national team (India tour of Australia 1938) [10]
1948 Talimeren Ao 1948 Summer Olympics
1949–54 Sailen Manna Ahmed Khan 1951 Asian Games, 1952 Colombo Cup, 1952 Summer Olympics,
1953 Colombo Cup, 1954 Colombo Cup, 1954 Asian Games
1955/58 Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din 1955 Colombo Cup, 1958 Asian Games [11]
1956 Samar Banerjee Neville D'Souza,
J. Krishnaswamy
1956 Summer Olympics
1959–60 Sheikh Abdul Latif 1959 Merdeka Tournament [12]
1960–61 P. K. Banerjee 1961 Merdeka Tournament, 1960 Summer Olympics
1962–64 Chuni Goswami 1962 Asian Games, 1964 AFC Asian Cup, 1964 Merdeka Tournament [13]
1965–67 Jarnail Singh 1965 Merdeka Tournament, 1966 Merdeka Tournament,
1966 Asian Games, 1967 Merdeka Tournament
[14]
1967–68 Arun Ghosh 1968 Merdeka Tournament [15]
1969/73 Inder Singh 1969 Merdeka Tournament, 1973 Merdeka Tournament
1970 Syed Nayeemuddin 1970 Merdeka Tournament, 1970 Asian Games
1971Chandreshwar Prasad 1971 Merdeka Tournament, 1971 Pesta Sukan Cup
1971 Arun Ghosh [16]
1972 Mohammed Habib
1974 Magan Singh Rajvi Ranjit Thapa1974 Merdeka Tournament, 1974 Asian Games
1976–77Pradip Chowdhury Gurdev Singh Gill
1978 Gurdev Singh Gill 1978 Asian Games
1980 Prasun Banerjee A. Devraj Doraiswamy
1981–82 Bhaskar Ganguly 1981 Merdeka Tournament, 1982 Nehru Cup, 1982 President's Cup,
1982 Merdeka Tournament, 1982 Asian Games
1982 Shabbir Ali [17]
1982/84 Prasanta Banerjee 1984 Nehru Cup [17]
1982 Parminder Singh [17]
1982–83 Brahmanand Sankhwalkar 1983 Nehru Cup [17]
1982 Pem Dorji [17]
1982 Biswajit Bhattacharya [17]
1982 Monoranjan Bhattacharya [17]
1984–86/88–89 Sudip Chatterjee Biswajit Bhattacharya, Tarun Dey 1984 AFC Asian Cup, 1985 Nehru Cup, 1986 Merdeka Tournament,
1986 Asian Games, 1985 South Asian Games, 1988 Nehru Cup,
1989 South Asian Games
[18]
1986 Atanu Bhattacharya Mauricio Afonso 1986 Nehru Cup
1987 Abdul Majeed Kakroo 1987 Nehru Cup
1987 Babu Mani 1987 South Asian Games
1989 Mauricio Afonso 1989 Nehru Cup
1991 Bikash Panji 1991 Nehru Cup
1992 Krishanu Dey
1993–95 V. P. Sathyan 1993 Nehru Cup, 1993 SAARC Gold Cup, 1993 South Asian Games
1995 Nehru Cup, 1995 South Asian Gold Cup
1995–96/97/99 Bruno Coutinho 1995 South Asian Games, 1997 Nehru Cup, 1999 SAFF Gold Cup
1996/98/99 I. M. Vijayan 1998 Asian Games
1997 Carlton Chapman 1997 SAFF Gold Cup
1999/2001/03 Jo Paul Ancheri 1999 South Asian Games, 2001 Merdeka Tournament
2000 Roberto Fernandes
2000–11 Bhaichung Bhutia I. M. Vijayan, Debjit Ghosh,
Shanmugam Venkatesh,
Renedy Singh, Climax Lawrence
2005 SAFF Gold Cup, 2007 Nehru Cup, 2008 SAFF Championship,
2008 AFC Challenge Cup, 2009 Nehru Cup, 2011 AFC Asian Cup
2001Basudeb Mondal
2003 Debjit Ghosh 2003 SAFF Gold Cup
2005 Shanmugam Venkatesh
2009 Renedy Singh
2011 Climax Lawrence 2011 SAFF Championship
2012–2024 Sunil Chhetri Gouramangi Singh,
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu,
Sandesh Jhingan
2012 AFC Challenge Cup, 2012 Nehru Cup,
2013 SAFF Championship, 2015 SAFF Championship,
2018 Intercontinental Cup, 2019 AFC Asian Cup,
2019 King's Cup, 2019 Intercontinental Cup,
2021 SAFF Championship, 2023 Tri-Nation Series
2023 Intercontinental Cup, 2023 SAFF Championship
2023 AFC Asian Cup
2015 Subrata Pal
2016/2023
2024–present
Gurpreet Singh Sandhu Rahul Bheke 2023 King's Cup, 2024 Intercontinental Cup
2017 Sandesh Jhingan 2017 Hero Tri-Nation Series
2018 Subhasish Bose 2018 SAFF Championship

Captains by major tournaments

PlayerTournament(s)
Talimeren Ao
Sailen Manna
Samar Banerjee
Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din
P. K. Banerjee
Chuni Goswami
Jarnail Singh
Syed Nayeemuddin
Magan Singh Rajvi
Gurdev Singh Gill
Bhaskar Ganguly
Sudip Chatterjee
I. M. Vijayan
Bhaichung Bhutia
Sunil Chhetri

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