Gurpreet Singh Sandhu: It’s more about having that sporting culture in our country

On the sidelines of recently held Red Bull Neymar Jr’s 5 India qualifiers, India national team goalkeeper Gurpreet Singh Sandhu talked about the push for sporting culture in India and what does a perfect season mean to him.

Excerpts:

More than 3000 teams participated in this edition of Red Bull Neymar Jr’s 5 India qualifiers, what do you think of this number?

There is an obvious increase in number of participation (from around 2000 last year), which shows it is growing and Red Bull fraternity is doing a great job by providing this platform. It is not easy you know, just to come up with this idea and organising all this. It’s more about having fun and I’m pretty sure 3000 teams that participated in this tournament had fun.

Last year India reached till the round of 32 in world finals of this tournament, do you think we can be consistent and repeat it again this year and continue forward?

Yeah definitely, the more you play, more are the chances that you repeat it. It is not easy you know especially playing away from home and performing over there against teams that are the best of their respective countries. So as I said competition aside, you just need to enjoy.

What do you think of this ‘Red Bull Neymar Jr’s five’ initiative of pushing 5-A-side football?

See, it is not just about 5-A-side football, it’s more about pushing people to have fun, to go out and play. It’s more about having that culture (sporting culture) in our country in our city, Mohalla or Gully, to go out and play rather than sitting at your home and watching videos on your phone.

Last question Bengaluru FC won the ISL, you won the golden glove award, perfect season for you?

Almost… Almost man! We had a good chance of winning the Super Cup and also in the AFC cup we could have done better, It would have been perfect, if we had achieved that.

But back to the Asian Nights next year, so all good?

For sure for sure, it was very important for us to be back in Asian competitions.

More reads from Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five ‘India Finals’:

Mumbai boys ‘outplay them all’ to represent India at Red Bull Neymar Jr’s Five World Finals in Brazil

Anthony Machado: I want to win National Finals & represent India at World Finals again 

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