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

left winger In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in that case known as defensive midfielders. ...

for club Shenzhen Peng City and the Austria national team.

Personal life

Born in Austria, Sarkaria is a

Sikh Sikhs (singular Sikh: or ; , ) are an ethnoreligious group who adhere to Sikhism, a 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 ''Si ...

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

descent. His family are from Amritsar in Punjab,

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

. 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 former professional Association football, footballer who played as an attacking midfielder or left winger. Widely reg ...

Club career

On 14 April 2021,

Sturm Graz Sportklub Sturm Graz is an Austrian professional association football club, based in Graz, playing in the Austrian Football Bundesliga. The club was founded in 1909. Its colours are black and white. In its history, Sturm Graz has won the Austr ...

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 Austria Wien in German-speaking countries, is an Austrian professional association football club from the capital city of Vienna. It has won the most trophies of any Aust ...

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 (), 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 a record 27th time. Wo ...

against

Rapid Wien Sportklub Rapid (), commonly known as Rapid Wien or Rapid Vienna in English, is an Austrian professional football club playing in the country's capital city of Vienna. Rapid has won the most Austrian championship titles (32), including the f ...

. He also became the top scorer during the

2022–23 Austrian Cup The 2022–23 Austrian Cup was the 92nd edition of the national cup in Austrian Association football, football. The final was held on 1 May 2023 in Klagenfurt with SK Sturm Graz, Sturm Graz capturing its 6th title with a 2–0 win over SK Rapid W ...

campaign. Sturm Graz Manager Christian Ilzer, 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." In March 2024, he suffered a broken ankle and missed the remainder of the 2023–24 season. In the 2024–25 season, he was moved to the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

in the 2. Liga. On 20 January 2025, Sturm Graz announced Sarkaria's transfer to Shenzhen Peng City in China.

Career statistics

Club

International

Honours

Sturm Graz *

Austrian Bundesliga The Bundesliga ( , "Federal League"), also known as Admiral Bundesliga for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Austria and the highest level of the Austrian football league system. The competition decides the A ...

: 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 Footballers from Vienna Living people 21st-century Austrian sportsmen People of Punjabi descent Austrian people of Indian descent Men's association football midfielders Austrian men's footballers Austria men's international footballers FK Austria Wien players SK Sturm Graz players Shenzhen Peng City F.C. players Austrian Football Bundesliga players 2. Liga (Austria) players Austrian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in China Austrian expatriate sportspeople in China {{Austria-footy-midfielder-stub