Sunday, March 11, 2007

Jarnail Singh : Stopper Back Indian Football

Full Name: Jarnail Singh Dhillon
Born: 1936, Panam, Hoshiarpur, Punjab
Major Teams: Khalsa Sporting Club, Mohun Bagan AC
Playing Position: Stopper back
Achievements:Won gold in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games

The legendary Jarnail Singh is regarded as one of the most outstanding defenders to have donned the India colours. The natural athlete that he was, Jarnail took the art of defence to new heights making himself an epitome of strength and stamina.

Like many of his illustrious compatriots, Jarnail played a pivotal role in shaping India's football fortunes during the golden era of Indian football. His heroics in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games are part of Indian football folklore now. Braving a nasty head-injury that required six stitches, Jarnail, in his new avatar as a forward, scored crucial goals in the semi-final and final to fetch India its maiden Asiad football gold.

Two years later, when India became the runner-up in the 1964 Asia Cup at Tel Aviv, Jarnail was at his best marshalling the defence with authority and guile. After another commendable show at the Merdeka tournament in Malaysia in the same year, Jarnail took over the reins of the team from Chuni Goswami and continued for more than two seasons with a fair bit of success.

At the domestic circuit, Jarnail was associated with the Mohun Bagan Club for 10 glorious years when the green-and-maroon team swept all the major titles at the national level. After quitting from Mohun Bagan in 1969, Jarnail went to play for Punjab and inspired the team to win the first Santosh Trophy in 1970 as a coach-cum-player.

2 Comments:

At February 13, 2010 at 3:03 AM , Blogger gopi kanta ghosh said...

He was wonder. We can not forget. Pride of India

 
At October 7, 2010 at 6:52 AM , Blogger Unknown said...

Jarnail... first panjabi to lead India football team and the first Indian to lead All Star Asia XI, was the best in Asia and one of the finest footballers in the world. Mahilpur was made famous with his name. Handsome, intellegent, humane and smiling tall sikh Olympian footballer was a great athlete, a great friend and pure nationalist.. proud of India and India,s PRIDE. Manohar Vashoisht

 

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