This is a list of Sikh footballers (soccer).
Sikh footballers have been part of the football community for many years, with players contributing to the sport both on and off the field. [1] While historical records are limited, notable players like Roger Verdi, Jarnail Singh and Inder Singh paved the way for modern-day players such as Manprit Sarkaria, Danny Batth and Harmeet Singh. [2] [3] [4]
There has also been various football clubs founded by Sikhs such as Panjab football team, Punjab United, Balestier Khalsa and Sporting Khalsa. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] In 2016, Sporting Khalsa reached the fourth qualifying round of the FA Cup.
The movie Bend It Like Beckham which was based on a Sikh girl who wanted to play professional football, grossed $76.6 million at the box office, making it the highest-grossing football sports film. [10]
The majority of Sikhs belong to the Punjabi ethnic group which origins can be traced in both Pakistan and India.
The list includes players with at least one game of professional experience outside of India.
Sikhs are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term Sikh has its origin in the Sanskrit word śiṣya, meaning 'seeker', 'disciple' or 'student'.
Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale was a Sikh militant. After Operation Bluestar, he posthumously became the leading figure for the Khalistan movement.
Babbar Khalsa also known as Babbar Khalsa International, is a Sikh militant organisation that aims to create an independent nation-state of Khalistan in the Punjab region of South Asia. It has used armed attacks, assassinations and bombings in aid of that goal, and is deemed to be a terrorist entity by various governments. Besides India, it operates in North America and Europe.
Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) is a hard-line Sikh nationalist political party led by Simranjit Singh Mann, it is a splinter group of the Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab, India. They use 'Balti', the Punjabi term for bucket as their official election symbol. Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was formed on 1 May 1994. The party has seen a resurgence in support after the deaths of Deep Sidhu and Sidhu Moose Wala who were supporters and seen as sympathetic to the cause of Simranjit Singh Mann. Their 2022 Lok Sabha victory after more than two decades has been viewed as a resurgence in a political vacuum due to collapse of other traditional political parties in Punjab. The last major victory for Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar) was in the 1989 Lok Sabha elections, where the party and their allies won 10 out of 13 seats from Punjab.
Talwinder Singh Parmar was an Indian militant, Sikh separatist, and the mastermind of the 1985 Air India Flight 182 bombing, which killed 329 people. It was the worst single incident of aviation terrorism in history until the September 11 attacks in the United States. In addition, another bomb was meant to explode aboard Air India Flight 301 in Japan the same day, but it exploded while the plane was still grounded, killing two people. Parmar was also the founder, leader, and Jathedar of Babbar Khalsa International (BKI), better known as Babbar Khalsa, a Sikh militant group involved in the Khalistan movement.
Dhillon is one of the largest Jat clans found in the Punjab region of India and Pakistan. Dhillon sardars (chiefs) ruled the Bhangi Misl in the Sikh confederacy.
Jagjit Singh Chohan was an Indian political activist who was a leader of the Sikh Khalistan movement that sought to create a sovereign Sikh state in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent. Chohan established the Council of Khalistan at Anandpur Sahib on 12 April 1980 and became its first self‐styled president.
Lala Jagat Narain was an Indian editor, member of the Punjab Legislative Assembly, Member of Parliament and founder of the Hind Samachar media group.
Jathedar Sukhdev Singh Babbar was a was an Indian militant, Sikh separatist, and co-leader of Babbar Khalsa (BK), a Sikh militant organisation involved in the pursuit of creating a Sikh nation named as "Khalistan" and generally believed responsible for the 1985 bombing of Air India Flight 182, although Sukhdev was never named as being involved. BK was founded by Talwinder Singh Parmar, himself, and Amarjit Kaur. He commanded BK continuously for 14 years until he was killed in 1992. He was a member of the AKJ.
Amrik Singh was the President of the All India Sikh Students Federation. He was killed in the Indian Army's operation on the Golden Temple on June 6, 1984.
Harchand Singh Longowal was the President of the Akali Dal political party during the Punjab insurgency of the 1980s. He had signed the Punjab accord, also known as the Rajiv-Longowal Accord with Rajiv Gandhi on 24 July 1985. The government accepted most of the Akali Dal demands, who in turn agreed to withdraw their activism. Less than a month after signing the accord, Longowal was assassinated.
The Khalsa Akhbar, Lahore, was a weekly newspaper and the organ of the Lahore Khalsa Diwan, a Sikh society. Published from Lahore in the Punjabi language, the newspaper was established in 1886 and functioned sporadically till 1905. Founded by Bhai Gurmukh Singh, a professor of Punjabi at the Oriental College, Lahore, who also established the Khalsa Press in Lahore, the paper was taken over by Giani Ditt Singh, a scholar and a poet. It was one of the most prominent and influential Sikh periodicals prior to 1920.
The Singh Sabhā Movement, also known as the Singh Sabhā Lehar, was a Sikh movement that began in Punjab in the 1870s in reaction to the proselytising activities of Christians, Hindu reform movements and Muslims. The movement was founded in an era when the Sikh Empire had been dissolved and annexed by the British, the Khalsa had lost its prestige, and mainstream Sikhs were rapidly converting to other religions. The movement's aims were to "propagate the true Sikh religion and restore Sikhism to its pristine glory; to write and distribute historical and religious books of Sikhs; and to propagate Gurmukhi Punjabi through magazines and media." The movement sought to reform Sikhism and bring back into the Sikh fold the apostates who had converted to other religions; as well as to interest the influential British officials in furthering the Sikh community. At the time of its founding, the Singh Sabha policy was to avoid criticism of other religions and political matters.
The 1978 Sikh–Nirankari clash occurred between the Sant Nirankari Mission and Sikhs of Damdami Taksal and Akhand Kirtani Jatha on 13 April 1978 at Amritsar, Punjab, India. Sixteen people—thirteen traditional Sikhs and three Nirankari followers—were killed in the ensuing violence, occurring when some Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Damdami Taksal members led by Fauja Singh protested against and tried to stop a convention of Sant Nirankari Mission followers. This incident is considered to be a starting point in the events leading to Operation Blue Star and the 1980s Insurgency in Punjab.
Jarnail Singh Dhillon was a former Indian football player, who played as a centre-back. He was the captain of the India national football team from 1965 to 1967. He was given the Arjuna Award in 1964 for his achievements as a football player. He also competed in the men's tournament at the 1960 Summer Olympics. Considered as one of Asia's best defenders in the 1960s, he spent most of his career in Mohun Bagan.
Dharam Yudh Morcha is a 2016 Indian Punjabi-language semidocumentary film directed by Naresh S. Garg about the Dharam Yudh Morcha a Sikh movement in the Indian state of Punjab, chronicling the history of Punjab from 1947 to 1984 including the Punjabi Suba movement, the Anandpur Sahib Resolution and the insurgency in Punjab.
Punjabi Malaysians are people of full or partial Punjabi descent who were born in or immigrated to Malaysia. Originating from the Punjab region of present-day India and Pakistan, Punjabi immigration to Malaysia began in the 19th century from what was then British India to British Malaya. The Punjabi Malaysian community today numbers over 100,000 – the majority of whom are Sikhs, although there are also sizeable Muslim, Hindu and Christian minorities. They form the largest Punjabi diaspora group in Southeast Asia, while within Malaysia, Punjabis are the fourth largest ethnicity of Indian or South Asian descent after the Tamils, Malayalis and Telugus.
Khalsa Samachar is a Sikh weekly newspaper that was founded in 1899 by Vir Singh. The periodical covers Panthic news, the tenets of the Sikh religion, elucidation of gurbani, and imparting the teachings of Sikhism. It was one of the early Punjabi and Gurmukhi newspapers that left a lasting influence and one of the most influential Sikh newspapers prior to 1920.
In January, Bhupinder Singh Gill became the first person of Sikh-Punjabi heritage to officiate in a Premier League match, running the line during Nottingham Forest's 1–0 win over Southampton. Now, a new generation of Sikh footballers are getting into the game, as Harpz Kaur reports for Football Focus.
An unlikely star of Sikh heritage in an era when British Asians were virtually absent from the game. Roger Verdi, a son of ethnic Punjabis, who changed his name to help navigate the murky waters of less enlightened times.
However, very few can match Inder Singh – an inside right forward who was not only a brilliant goal scorer, but also a scorer of barely believable goals. He is our Messi, he is our Ronaldo, he is our Neymar; over his career, Inder Singh had grown accustomed to embarrassing opposition defenders and mesmerizing every spectator in sight with his silky, skillful moves and glorious goals.
More than fifty years after his heroics in India's gold medal-winning exploits at the 1962 Asian Games and twenty years after his death, Jarnail Singh is still fondly remembered as one of Indian football's true gems who knew no fear.
It started out as a kickabout in Arboretum park with the Indian and Sikh community who lived in the area. I was never a very good footballer but I was a very good organiser and have been involved with the club ever since.
Now regularly competing at the top of the ninth tier of the English game, the Midland Football League Premier Division, and with ambitions to climb higher, the club was founded by a group of friends whose families are originally from northern India, the Punjab, and moved to England in the fifties and sixties. Having met through two local Sikh temples – one in Willenhall, the other in Pleck – the younger generation bonded over football.
I significantly remember when Jagjit was the President of the Singapore Khalsa Association (SKA). He reached out to the other communities by opening up sporting events to non-Sikhs. In his effort to project the Sikh community's name in the sporting arena, he even spearheaded support to Balestier Khalsa Football Club since its entry into the S-League.
Singh is also influenced by his religious heritage. As he gets older, he feels the need to do more charity work "because this is a big responsibility as a Sikh," the faith he was born into.
Kandola, who has lived in the same Tettenhall house his entire life with his Indian-Sikh parents
The son of a Punjab-Sikh, Batth proudly categorises himself as British-Indian and often finds himself co-opted into an ambassadorial role
Speaking exclusively to VERSUS about the move, Brandon said: "To make history at the boyhood club which I have played for since the very start, I feel very honoured and grateful. As well being the first South Asian (Sikh) professional here at Birmingham City I am looking to inspire more players of my heritage to break through
Mal Benning wants to inspire the next generation of Indian Sikh players as he goes for promotion with Port Vale.
The song of the British Sikhs couldn't have been written 30 years ago. It finds at least one Sikh success story for every letter of the alphabet.........Pick up bits of the song here and there; Gurinder Chadha with the film Bhaji on the Beach, Harpal Singh signed by Leeds United football club
Birmingham-born Dhanda is a product of the West Brom academy, and his father is Sikh-Punjabi.
Many felt this heroic and proud baton of his was passed to the rightful successor when Serbegeth Singh graced the pitches in the late 80s. Both were tough no nonsense defenders, with the tenacity and 'never die' attitude, emboldening the general perception Malaysians had of the Punjabi and Sikh community.
Raspreet, being a Sikh, is a bonus as that community has produced some superb footballers over the years." Over to Raspreet: Your advice for any other young Sikhs, or even American-Asians, who want to take up sports, or football, as a career?
Another ex-international player S. Subramani received the outstanding achievement award while ex-national player Raj Inder Singh Gill was awarded the Sikh achievement award.In addition, ex-national under-21 captain Delwinder Singh received the Sikh achievement award for promising Sikh national football player.
Being from India, my parents wanted me to be a doctor or a dentist, or something along those lines, says Thandi, who was raised in a Sikh family by parents from the Punjab region of India.