There are incidents in life that shape the career of a player forever, and former India hockey captain Manpreet Singh is no different. Even though he took the Indian team to unprecedented heights, and helped the team win an Olympic medal after 40 years, his beginning was rather humble.
Speaking before departure to the Asian Games, Manpreet Singh revealed a couple of incidents from his early hockey career, that took him to greatness. “I’m from a place called Mithapur, Jalandhar, and my two elder brothers were into hockey. I had a passion for the sport too. Due to their financial condition, they had to leave hockey, but I continued;” he told Sony Sports Network, the official broadcaster in India for Asian Games.
Manpreet continued, “After seeing their trophies and hockey sticks I also got the feeling that I need to excel at hockey. I remember, once I got so late in coming back from a tournament, that I was scared to enter the house. But then when I told my family that I earned my first salary of INR 500, my mother extended her full support.”
Not just that, Manpreet also spoke about the inspirational figure he had, after taking up the sport. It was none other than Pargat Singh, the former India hockey captain, who hailed from Mithapur as well. “Hockey is quite famous in our place, and Pargat Singh came from there too. So whenever he came for our tournaments, the entire village used to throng him. He had that kind of pull, and I also wanted to become like that. I wanted to be recognised as Manpreet Singh, the Olympic medalist.”
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