Manprit Sarkaria (born 26 August 1996) is an Austrian professional footballer who plays as a

left winger A midfielder is an outfield position in association football. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. As central midfielders often go across boundarie ...

for Sturm Graz and the Austria national team.

Personal life

Born in Austria, Sarkaria is a

Sikh Sikhs ( or ; pa, ਸਿੱਖ, ' ) are people who adhere to Sikhism (Sikhi), a monotheistic religion that originated in the late 15th century in the Punjab region of the Indian subcontinent, based on the revelation of Guru Nanak. The term ' ...

of Indian

Punjabi Punjabi, or Panjabi, most often refers to: * Something of, from, or related to Punjab, a region in India and Pakistan * Punjabi language * Punjabi people * Punjabi dialects and languages Punjabi may also refer to: * Punjabi (horse), a British Th ...

descent. His family are from Amritsar in Punjab, India. Sarkaria has stated his free kick technique is inspired by former Brazilian footballer

Ronaldinho Ronaldo de Assis Moreira (born 21 March 1980), commonly known as Ronaldinho Gaúcho () or simply Ronaldinho, is a Brazilian retired professional footballer who played mostly as an attacking midfielder, but was also deployed as a winger. Wide ...

Club career

On 14 April 2021, Sturm Graz announced that Sarkaria would be joining the club in the summer when his contract with

Austria Wien Fußballklub Austria Wien AG (; known in English as Austria Vienna, and usually shortened to Austria (German: Österreich) in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the mos ...

expired. On 20 May 2022, Sarkaria extended his contract with Sturm Graz until June 2025. In May 2023, Sarkaria scored two crucial goals for Sturm Graz to win the

Austrian Cup The Austrian Cup (german: ÖFB-Cup), known as UNIQA ÖFB Cup for sponsorship purposes, is an annual football competition held by the Austrian Football Association, the ÖFB. During the 2008–09 season, Austria Wien won the tournament for 27th t ...

against

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid Wien (), commonly known as Rapid Vienna, is an Austrian football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the first title in the season 1911–12, ...

. He also became the top scorer during the

2022–23 Austrian Cup The 2022–23 Austrian Cup is the 92nd edition of the national cup in Austrian football. The champions of the cup will earn a place in the 2023–24 Europa League play-off round. The final will be held on 1 May 2023 in Klagenfurt. Red Bull Sa ...

campaign. Sturm Graz Manager

Christian Ilzer Christian Ilzer (born 21 October 1977) is an Austrian football manager who manages Sturm Graz. Coaching career As a teenager, three cruciate ligament injuries stopped his career and at the age of only 17, where became coach of USK Raiffeisen ...

, stated "Because he managed to get out of this difficult situation solely through his own work, through his professional behavior. He was massively rewarded for that with the cup victory."

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sturm Graz *

Austrian Bundesliga The Austrian Football Bundesliga (german: Österreichische Fußball-Bundesliga, italic=no , "Austrian Football Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is the top level of the Austrian football league system. The ...

: 2023–24 *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

, 2023–24 Individual *

Team of the Year: 2021–22

References

1996 births Living people People of Punjabi descent Austrian people of Indian descent Austrian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Austria men's international footballers Austrian Football Bundesliga players FK Austria Wien players SK Sturm Graz players {{Austria-footy-midfielder-stub