Sarpreet Singh becomes 1st Punjabi Footballer at FIFA World Cup

Sarpreet Singh will make history at the 2026 FIFA World Cup, becoming the first Punjabi heritage footballer to play at the tournament.

He was named in the New Zealand squad, which will be competing in the World Cup for the first time since 2010.

On being selected by head coach Darren Bazeley, Singh said:

“I was very happy when the coach told me and I was really, really proud and honoured.

“I felt this, I guess, a sense of responsibility to go on the world stage now and make everyone in the country proud.”

Born in Auckland, football became central to Singh’s life from an early age.

He told RNZ: “I grew up in South Auckland. I initially started with Papatoetoe when I was younger and then my mum enrolled me into the Wynton Rufer Academy.

“Most of my development came through Onehunga.

“Then, we had the Under 17s World Cup qualifiers and then, from there, I was invited down to Wellington to train with the teams down here.”

Singh then joined Wellington Phoenix FC and made his senior debut at just 16 years old.

He represented New Zealand at the FIFA Under-17 World Cup in 2015 and later appeared at the FIFA Under-20 World Cups in 2017 and 2019.

Singh became more widely known when he joined German giants Bayern Munich.

Singh later played for clubs across Europe, including 1. FC Nürnberg, SSV Jahn Regensburg, FC Hansa Rostock, União de Leiria and FK TSC Backa Topola.

Earlier in 2026, Singh returned to Wellington Phoenix on loan from FK TSC Backa Topola to secure regular minutes ahead of the World Cup.

However, his comeback was disrupted by injury after just one appearance for the club, sidelining him for around 10 weeks.

Singh made his senior debut for the All Whites in 2018 and also featured in New Zealand’s squad at the 2024 Paris Olympics. He played an important role during the nation’s successful World Cup qualifying campaign.

Despite spending much of his career overseas, Singh has remained closely connected to his Punjabi roots and India.

He said: “It’s definitely something that I’m going to do in the near future because I think it’s very important to go back.”

Sarpreet Singh also recalled receiving strong support from Indian football fans during international matches played in India.

He admitted: “It was obviously very strange, because I was loved by everyone.

“It was just so nice to see all the support and, obviously, I was playing for New Zealand.”

“But the support and the fans cheering for me and showing me all the love and appreciation, it meant a lot, even back then at that age.”

In New Zealand, football is now the country’s largest team participation sport.

Singh believes New Zealand football is moving in the right direction as the country continues to invest in the game.

He said: “You see more professional teams and now, with the World Cup and hopefully in the future, you’ll have more teams in the A-League from New Zealand, or they will have their own professional league one day.”

Sarpreet Singh added that the current New Zealand squad believe they can make an impact at the World Cup:

“[When] you’re playing on the world stage, it’s the biggest stage of all.

“And I know, within this group, we have a belief that we can do something very special.

“I think we’ve really built up a very good squad and had some good games over the past few years, but I think it’ll all come together nicely at the World Cup.

“We can ideally make New Zealanders proud of what we’ve done.”

New Zealand will face Belgium, Egypt and Iran in the group stage.