India’s star goalkeeper, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, who rose to fame by his heroics at the SAFF Championships final, opened up on rejecting a lucrative offer to play in the ISL. Sandhu, aged 31, got an offer from his former team S tabaek Football, but Sandhu decided to continue his stint for Bengaluru FC in Indian Super League.
Sandhu got an offer from the Norwegian Club in January, and the club wanted to sign him as a star keeper but still the Indian gloveman declined the opportunity. However, it is for the first time that the footballer has opened up on rejecting the offer.
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Sandhu is currently in Oslo, where he is undergoing pre-season training with the former team. Clearing the air about his move to the club that almost happened, he said, "I hope people don't hate me because I didn't go to Europe. The plan was to do it, but it just didn't happen logistically. Obviously, I would have loved to come back here and spend at least one or two seasons." Sandhu also said that it was a sudden interest from the club, and it came while he was also in talks with BFC.
Speaking about the logistical issues he faced at the club, Sandhu added, "The season over here works out very differently from how it is everywhere else. Over here the pre-season starts mid-Jan, and it goes till mid-March and then the league starts from end of March till December first week."
The Punjab-born footballer went on to say, "During that time, I was with BFC, and we were winning game-after-game-after-game, we were very close to going to the playoffs and I thought 'this is something I can do, but maybe after the ISL finishes...' because I have to respect where I was."
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Already having spent three years at the European club as a second-choice keeper, Gurpreet explained that he knows how the club functions. Not only this, but another Indian footballer and his teammate Sandesh Jhinghan went to HNK Sibenik but returned without playing a game for the team.
