Balwant Singh (born 15 December 1986) is an Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a forward.

Club career

JCT

Born in

Hoshiarpur Hoshiarpur () is a city and a Municipal corporations in India, municipal corporation in Hoshiarpur district in the Doaba region of the Indian state of Punjab, India, Punjab. It was founded, according to tradition, during the early part of the ...

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, Balwant started his footballing journey with Mahilpur Football Club before joining the academy of JCT before being promoted to their senior team in 2008. He scored his first professional goal for the club on 28 September 2008 against

Mahindra United Mahindra United Football Club (formerly known as Mahindra & Mahindra) was an Indian professional football club based in Mumbai, Maharashtra. Founded in 1962, the club competed in the I-League, then top tier of Indian football league system, bef ...

in the 64th minute to help JCT to a huge 7–1 victory. He then scored his second goal for the club on 11 October 2008 against

Mohammedan ''Mohammedan'' (also spelled ''Muhammadan'', ''Mahommedan'', ''Mahomedan'' or ''Mahometan'') is a term for a follower of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muhamm ...

in the 45th minute to help JCT to a 2–0 win. Balwant then scored his last goal of his debut

season A season is a division of the year based on changes in weather, ecology, and the number of daylight hours in a given region. On Earth, seasons are the result of the axial parallelism of Earth's axial tilt, tilted orbit around the Sun. In temperat ...

against

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

on 26 November 2008 in the 38th minute, but could not prevent JCT from going down 2–3. He had a productive

Durand Cup The Durand Cup (also called the IndianOil Durand Cup Powered by Coal India Limited for sponsorship reasons) is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Annadale, Shimla, Himachal Pradesh. Hosted by the ...

campaign in his debut season, where JCT reached the semi-finals, with Balwant scoring thrice during the tournament. He opened his account for the 2009–10 season on 4 October 2009 when he scored a brace as JCT won the match 5–1 against Shillong Lajong before scoring his third and final goal that season against Sporting Goa on 28 January 2010 in the 58th minute in a match JCT won 2–0. Balwant was among the 6 JCT players who went for a short training stint at

Wolverhampton Wanderers Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club ( ), commonly referred to as Wolves, is a professional association football, football club based in Wolverhampton, England. The club competes in the Premier League, the top tier of English football league s ...

in England in 2010. He then scored what went on to be his final goal for JCT during the

2010–11 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number, numeral, and glyph. It is the first and smallest positive integer of the infinite sequence of natural numbers. This fundamental property has led to its unique uses in other fields, ranging from science to sp ...

season against Churchill Brothers on 7 December 2010 in the 37th minute as his team drew the match 1–1.

Salgaocar

When the

ended, JCT were relegated to the

I-League 2nd Division The I-League 2 is an Indian men's professional association football, football league. It is the 3rd tier of the Indian football league system, behind the Indian Super League and the I-League. It operates as a system of promotion and relegation ...

, and Balwant was picked up by goan-based Salgaocar on 8 June 2011 on a two-year deal. He made his club debut while on 21 March 2012 against Neftchi FK in the

2012 AFC Cup The 2012 AFC Cup was the ninth edition of the AFC Cup, a football competition organized by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) for clubs from "developing countries" in Asia. Al-Kuwait from Kuwait won their second AFC Cup title in four year ...

when he came on as a 79th-minute substitute for Francis Fernandes as his team drew the match 2–2. He then featured in his 2nd

AFC Cup The AFC Champions League Two (abbreviated as the ACL Two or ACL2) is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation. It is the second-tier competition of Asian club football, ranked below the AFC C ...

match against Al-Wehdat on 10 April 2012 when Salgaocar lost 1–2. Balwant struggled for the majority of his time at Salgaocar; his first season was blighted by long injury lay-offs while in the second season, he was relegated to play only the local league games in Goa and did not make any I-League appearances.

Churchill Brothers

After barely getting any playing time with Salgaocar, Balwant signed for the defending

I-League The I-League is the men's second professional football division of the Indian football league system behind the Indian Super League. Administered by the All India Football Federation, it is currently contested by 13 clubs. It operates as a s ...

champions Churchill Brothers on 9 July 2013. He made his debut for the club in the league on 5 October 2013 against

in a game in which he started and played 57 minutes in a 2–0 win. He then scored his first goal for the club five days later on 10 October 2013 against Rangdajied United in the 27th minute to equalise for Churchill Brothers as the match ended 1–1. He scored a brace for Churchill Brothers in the league on 2 November 2013 against United SC to give his team an early lead, however, that lead would not last as the club went on to lose the match 2–3. On 29 April, Balwant was named Indian player of the season for his goal-scoring feat during the season.

Mohun Bagan

Balwant was roped in by

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Super Giant, commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan, is an Indian professional football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, ...

ahead of 5 other clubs who were chasing his signature due to his 17-goal exploits the previous season for the 2014–15 season on a one-year deal. he would appear 17 times for Bagan in their title winning campaign scoring times, and 4 times in the Federation Cup.

Chennaiyin

Balwant was loaned out to south Indian franchise Chennaiyin for the inaugural season of the Indian Super League by his club Mohun Bagan. On 15 October 2014, he opened the score as Chennaiyin won 2–1 at

Goa Goa (; ; ) is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is bound by the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north, and Karnataka to the ...

in their first

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is a professional association football league in India and the highest level of the Indian football league system. Administered by the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and its commercial partner Football Sport ...

match, thus becoming the first Indian to score in the league. Balwant would appear 14 times for the

Marco Materazzi Marco Materazzi (; born 19 August 1973) is an Italian former professional Association football, footballer and Association football manager, manager. Early in his career, Materazzi played with various Italian teams in Serie B and Serie C, and w ...

managed outfit, helping them reach the semi-finals, where they were beaten over two-legs by southern rivals

Kerala Blasters Kerala Blasters Football Club (), commonly referred to simply as Blasters, is an Indian professional football club based in Kochi, Kerala, that competes in the Indian Super League (ISL), the top tier of football in India. The club was esta ...

. Balwant was retained by Chennaiyin for the 2015 season.

Mumbai City

Balwant signed with Mumbai City for the 2017–18 Indian Super League season. Head coach Alexandre Guimarães said that "Mumbai City FC lucky to have Balwant Singh as one of the first picks". He picked up an ankle injury during the pre-season training and was consequently ruled out of play for the opener against

Bengaluru Bengaluru, also known as Bangalore (List of renamed places in India#Karnataka, its official name until 1 November 2014), is the Capital city, capital and largest city of the southern States and union territories of India, Indian state of Kar ...

. On 23 November, it was announced that he returned to training and was available for selection for the next league match against

. He scored his first goal for the club against Pune City. In December, he won the Man of the Match award for scoring an equaliser against

ATK

Balwant signed with ATK for two seasons in 2018. He was an integral part of the team that became the 2019–20 Indian Super League champions.

East Bengal

On 12 April 2020, it was officially announced that Balwant has signed on a 2 years contract with Kolkata Giants East Bengal F.C.

International career

Balwant made his international debut for India B on 17 February 2010 against Kyrigyzstan in India's opening match of the

2010 AFC Challenge Cup The 2010 AFC Challenge Cup was the third edition of the tournament which was held from 16–27 February 2010 in Sri Lanka. India, the defending champions, fielded their India national under-23 football team, under-23 team for this tournament ...

in which he started and played 79 minutes before being substituted for Jeje Lalpekhlua. Later that year, he made his debut for India at the under-23 level when India took part in the

2010 Asian Games The 2010 Asian Games (), officially known as the XVI Asian Games () and also known as Guangzhou 2010 (), were a regional multi-sport event held from November 12 to 27, 2010 in Guangzhou, Guangdong, China (although several events commenced ear ...

. The match took place on 7 November 2010 against

Kuwait Kuwait, officially the State of Kuwait, is a country in West Asia and the geopolitical region known as the Middle East. It is situated in the northern edge of the Arabian Peninsula at the head of the Persian Gulf, bordering Iraq to Iraq–Kuwait ...

in which Singh played the whole match as India's under-23s lost 0–2. Then, later in the tournament, he scored his first ever international goal against Singapore U23s in the 62nd minute as India ran out 4–1 winners. He made his national debut against Mauritius in Hero Tri-Nation Cup and also scored the winning goal. On 5 September Balwant scored a brace which helped them secure a 2–0 win against

Macau Macau or Macao is a special administrative regions of China, special administrative region of the People's Republic of China (PRC). With a population of about people and a land area of , it is the most List of countries and dependencies by p ...

in the Asian Cup Qualifying.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list India's goal tally first.''

Honours

Salgaocar *

* Federation Cup:

2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...

Churchill Brothers * Federation Cup: 2013–14 Mohun Bagan *

: 2014–15 * Federation Cup: 2015–16 Chennaiyin *

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

ATK *

: 2019–20 India * Tri-Nation Series:

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

* Intercontinental Cup:

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

* King's Cup third place:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

India U23 *

SAFF Championship The SAFF Championship (erstwhile SAARC Gold Cup and SAFF Gold Cup), is the primary association football competition contested by the senior List of men's national association football teams, men's national teams of the South Asian Football Fede ...

2009 2009 was designated as the International Year of Astronomy by the United Nations to coincide with the 400th anniversary of Galileo Galilei's first known astronomical studies with a telescope and the publication of Astronomia Nova by Joha ...

Individual * FPAI Indian Player of the Season: 2013–14

References

External links

Balwant Singh
on I-League * {{DEFAULTSORT:Singh, Balwant 1986 births Living people Footballers from Hoshiarpur Indian men's footballers JCT FC players Salgaocar FC players Churchill Brothers FC Goa players Men's association football forwards I-League players India men's international footballers India men's youth international footballers Indian Super League players 21st-century Indian sportsmen Chennaiyin FC players Footballers at the 2010 Asian Games Mumbai City FC players 2019 AFC Asian Cup players Asian Games footballers for India ATK (football club) players East Bengal Club players Mohun Bagan Super Giant players Calcutta Football League players Delhi FC players