Former Indian hockey team captain and midfielder Manpreet Singh has created history. 33 year old Manpreet has become the Indian player to play the most number of international hockey matches. Manpreet achieved this feat during the FIH Hockey Pro League match against Germany on Wednesday (June 17). He broke the record of former veteran Dilip Tirkey. Dilip Tirkey played 412 international matches in his career. Manpreet has 413 international matches to his name.
Manpreet, who led India to bronze in Tokyo Olympics 2020 under his captaincy, comes from Jalandhar district of Punjab. He has been honored with the Arjuna Award in 2018 and the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award in 2021.
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What number is Manpreet in the world?
The world record for playing the most international hockey matches is in the name of Belgium’s John-John Dohman. He played a total of 481 international matches. After him are the names of Tun de Noijder of Netherlands (453 matches), Eddie Ockenden of Australia (451 matches) and Barry Middleton of Britain (432 matches). Manpreet is at fourth position. The special thing is that he is the only active player to have played more than 400 international matches.
Hockey players who played most international matches
- John-John Dohmen (Belgium) – 481 matches
- Tun de Noijder (Netherlands) – 453 matches
- Eddie Ockenden (Australia) – 451 matches
- Barry Middleton (Britain) – 432 matches
- Manpreet Singh (India) – 413 matches
- Dilip Tirkey (India) – 412 matches
- Wasim Ahmed (Pakistan) – 410 matches
- Jeroen Delmy (Netherlands) – 401 matches
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India’s victory made Manpreet’s achievement more special
In Manpreet’s 413th international match, India defeated Germany 3-1. For India, Mandeep Singh (seventh), Shilanand Lakra (13th) and Neelkanta Sharma (35th) scored one goal each, while the only goal for Germany was scored by Raphael Hartkopf (45th). Indian midfielder Hardik Singh was named player of the match.
India made a good start in the match and maintained control of the ball from the beginning, the benefit of which came in the seventh minute, when Mandeep scored a goal to give the team a 1-0 lead. Even before the end of the first quarter, Lakra surprised German goalkeeper Alexander Stadler with a brilliant shot and put India ahead 2-0. In the second quarter, Germany tried to enter India’s half but the Indian defense displayed a strong performance.
Germany got two penalty corners but the first one was saved by Amit Rohidas and the second one was saved by goalkeeper Mohit, thus maintaining India’s lead. India then increased their lead to 3-0 when Neelkanta ran alone past the German defenders and put the ball in the goal. With just 20 seconds left in the third quarter, Hartkopf scored the first goal for his team in the 45th minute. After this, the German team adopted an aggressive attitude and made continuous attacks in the fourth quarter but the Indian defense left no stone unturned to thwart them.
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