Asian Games 2023 Indian football team squad: AIFF announces the final squad with Sandesh and Sunil

The turmoil and confusion in announcing the Asian Games 2023 Indian Football team squad continues. One day after AIFF's squad announcement on Wednesday, the Sports Ministry announced a new squad for the upcoming Asian Games starting from 19th September in Hangzhou, China.

AIFF had to fight with the Sports Ministry to get the approval to send the Indian Football Team to China for the Asian Games. Sports Ministry was not ready to send the team since the Indian Football team was not ranked among the top eight teams in Asia.

However, after reconsideration and looking at the recent success of the Indian Football team, the Sports Ministry agreed to send both men's and women's Indian Football teams to the Asian Games.

Read Also: Asian Games 2023: Indian men's and women's football teams fixtures

Asian Games 2023 Indian Football team squad on 1st August

Since the Asian Games is mostly a U-23 tournament and they allow only three senior footballers, it was told that Sunil Chhetri, Gurpreet Singh Sandhu and Sandesh Jhingan will be the senior players to go for the Asian Games.

On the 1st of August, 2023, AIFF released an Indian Football team squad for the Asian Games consisting of Sunil Chhetri, Sandesh Jhingan and Gurpreet Singh Sandhu. However, the problem started to take place once the ISL teams did not agree to let their players go outside the FIFA Window.

The squad on 1st August (released by AIFF): Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Gurmeet Singh, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem, Sandesh Jhingan, Anwar Ali, Narender Gahlot, Lalchungnunga, Akash Mishra, Roshan Singh, Ashish, Jeakson Singh Thounaojam, Suresh Singh Wangjam, Apuia Ralte, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Rahul KP, Naorem Mahesh Singh, Siva Sakthi Narayanan, Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav, Vikram Partap Singh, Rohit Danu, and Sunil Chhetri

Revised Indian Football team squad for the Asian Games

With the ISL schedule colliding with the Asian Games, AIFF on 13th September announced a revised squad for the tournament with only Sunil Chhetri included in the squad. They made 13 changes to the original squad announced on the 1st of August.

Squad on 13th September (released by AIFF): Gurmeet Singh, Vishal Yadav, Sumit Rathi, Narender Gahlot, Deepak Tangri, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Samuel James, Rahul KP, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Rahim Ali, Vincy Barretto, Liston Colaco, Gurkirat Singh, Aniket Jadhav, Bryce Miranda, Abdul Rabeeh Anjukandan, Azfar Noorani, and Sunil Chhetri

Asian Games 2023 Indian Football team squad on 14 September

However, one day after the announcement and many controversies, the Sports Ministry stepped in and announced another squad for the Asian Games 2023.

Squad on 14 September (released by Sports Ministry): Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Gurmeet Singh, Vishal Yadav, Anwar Ali, Narender Gahlot, Sandesh Jhingan, Akash Mishra, Lalchungnunga, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Mahesh Singh Naorem, Abdul Rabeeh, Samuel James, Jeakson Singh, Suresh Singh, Rahim Ali, Aniket Jadhav, Rahul KP, Liston Colaco, Sunil Chhetri, Vincy Barretto, Vikram Pratap Singh

Hours later, AIFF announced the final squad of the Indian Football team for the Asian Games. Chinglensana Singh and Lalchungnunga were added along with a confirmed inclusion of Sandesh Jhingan.

Indian Football team (men's) for the Asian Games

Goalkeepers: Gurmeet Singh, Dheeraj Singh Moirangthem.

Defenders: Sumit Rathi, Narender Gahlot, Deepak Tangri, Sandesh Jhingan, Chinglensana Singh, Lalchungnunga.

Midfielders: Amarjit Singh Kiyam, Samuel James Lyngdoh, Rahul KP, Abdul Rabeeh, Ayush Dev Chhetri, Bryce Miranda, Azfar Noorani, Vincy Barretto.

Forwards: Sunil Chhetri, Rahim Ali, Rohit Danu, Gurkirat Singh, Aniket Jadhav.

Head coach: Igor Stimac.