Background
Gurpreet was born on 3 February 1992 in Mohali, Punjab, India, part of the Chandigarh tri-city.
Gurpreet was born on 3 February 1992 in Mohali, Punjab, India, part of the Chandigarh tri-city.
He is the first ever Indian to play a competitive match for the first team of a top division European club and the fifth Indian player to play professionally in Europe after Mohammed Salim, Baichung Bhutia, Sunil Chhetri and Subrata Pal. Gurpreet took up the game of football at the age of 8 and joined the Saint Stephen"s Academy in 2000. After good performances at the Saint Stephen"s Academy, Gurpreet was selected for his state youth team, the Punjab U16s.
He made his youth state level debut in 2006 in Haldwani.
He stayed at Saint Stephen"s Academy till 2009 when he joined I-League side East Bengal as a youth player and spend the rest of 2009 playing for the Kolkata-based teams" youth team East Bengal
In 2010, Gurpreet officially signed a professional contract with East Bengal and made five appearances for East Bengal before the end of the 2009-2010 season.
Foreign the 2010-2011 season, Gurpreet was loaned out to Pailan Arrows, seeking regular game time but ended the season with no caps for Indian Arrows, as they were called then He started the 2011-2012 season as the second choice goalkeeper for East Bengal during the 2011 Federation Cup, but after the Federation Cup, Gurpreet took over as the first choice "keeper for East Bengal"s I-League campaign.
He started in first game of the 2011-2012 I-League campaign in their 0–1 loss to Churchill Brothers.
He debuted in continental competitions in Asia on 6 March 2012 in the 2012 AFC Cup against First Rate (at Lloyd's)-Oruba as East Bengal lost the match 0–1. Stabæk
Sandhu signed for Norwegian club Stabæk on 15 August 2014. Gurpreet made his debut for the India U19s against the Iraq U19s in the 2010 AFC U-19 Championship qualification on 5 November 2009.
He was then surprisingly called up to the senior Indian team squad of 23 for the 2011 AFC Asian Cup.
He made his debut against Turkmenistan in a 1–1 draw. He was called up to the 2018 Fédération internationale de football association World Cup qualifier squad against Nepal but was unused in both legs.
Gurpreet made his second appearance for the senior team against Iran in a 2018 World Cup qualifier at Bangalore, starting in a 0-3 defeat. He made his next appearance against Turkmenistan in a 2-1 loss on the 8th of October.
He also kept a clean-sheet against Guam on November 12, 2015, a game that ended 1-0.
Gurpreet is also a fan of former Manchester United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar and Indian goalkeeper Subrata Pal. He is a graduate of Disabled American Veterans College in Chandigarh.
On 18 January 2015, he made his senior debut for the club in a friendly match against second-tier side Follo in a 4-1 win. Gurpreet created history by becoming the first Indian player to play a professional senior game for a top division football club in Europe when he started, and kept a clean sheet in a 6-0 win for his club against Runar on 22 April 2015 in a Norwegian Cup game. He kept his second clean sheet vs Sri Lanka in a 2-0 win in the SAFF Suzuki cup 2015.
