The diaspora dream: How Indian-origin players are shaping the World Cup landscape
From one in the 2006 World Cup to four in 2026, Indian-origin players are making the world their stage
The article highlights a growing trend of football players of Indian origin participating in international tournaments, marking a significant shift from the lone presence of Vikash Dhorasoo in the 2006 World Cup. Over the past two decades, the number of such players has gradually increased, with notable individuals like Neil Taylor representing Wales and Luciano Narsingh featuring for the Netherlands, demonstrating a developing pipeline of talent. The upcoming 2026 World Cup is expected to feature four such players, including Sarpreet Singh for New Zealand, Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid for Qatar, Nishan Velupillay for Australia, and Samuel Moutoussamy for DR Congo, showcasing their active roles and contributions to their national teams, which in turn has inspired youth development in communities with Indian heritage. This expansion is attributed to the deeper integration of South Asian communities into local football cultures and more inclusive academy outreach, fostering a new generation of players who dream of excelling in the sport globally.
The article highlights a growing trend of football players of Indian origin participating in international tournaments, marking a significant shift from the lone presence of Vikash Dhorasoo in the 2006 World Cup. Over the past two decades, the number of such players has gradually increased, with notable individuals like Neil Taylor representing Wales and Luciano Narsingh featuring for the Netherlands, demonstrating a developing pipeline of talent. The upcoming 2026 World Cup is expected to feature four such players, including Sarpreet Singh for New Zealand, Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid for Qatar, Nishan Velupillay for Australia, and Samuel Moutoussamy for DR Congo, showcasing their active roles and contributions to their national teams, which in turn has inspired youth development in communities with Indian heritage. This expansion is attributed to the deeper integration of South Asian communities into local football cultures and more inclusive academy outreach, fostering a new generation of players who dream of excelling in the sport globally.
The article highlights a growing trend of football players of Indian origin participating in international tournaments, marking a significant shift from the lone presence of Vikash Dhorasoo in the 2006 World Cup. Over the past two decades, the number of such players has gradually increased, with notable individuals like Neil Taylor representing Wales and Luciano Narsingh featuring for the Netherlands, demonstrating a developing pipeline of talent. The upcoming 2026 World Cup is expected to feature four such players, including Sarpreet Singh for New Zealand, Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid for Qatar, Nishan Velupillay for Australia, and Samuel Moutoussamy for DR Congo, showcasing their active roles and contributions to their national teams, which in turn has inspired youth development in communities with Indian heritage. This expansion is attributed to the deeper integration of South Asian communities into local football cultures and more inclusive academy outreach, fostering a new generation of players who dream of excelling in the sport globally.
In the summer of 2006, in a tournament remembered for Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt, an elegant French midfielder of Indian origin made two substitute appearances—six minutes against Switzerland, followed by two against South Korea. Vikash Dhorasoo also left an archive of his World Cup experience—a documentary titled Substitute, which upset the powers that be. He never played for France again.
Dhorasoo’s ancestors had left Andhra Pradesh for Mauritius generations earlier. The India in him was distant, historical and filtered by an island nation. Yet there he was, the first player of Indian origin at a World Cup, alone, in a tournament of 736 players. For the next two decades, the number stayed at one.
It was not as though players of Indian descent stopped appearing in world football. Neil Taylor, whose mother was Kolkata-born Shibani Chakraborty, was part of a golden generation that carried Wales to the semifinals of Euro 2016. Luciano Narsingh, who also descended from labourers from Andhra Pradesh, in this case settled in Suriname, was at Euro 2012 with the Netherlands and only missed out on Brazil 2014 because of injury. Manprit Sarkaria, whose parents left Amritsar for Vienna, earned a senior cap for Austria in 2023 and won the 2023-24 Austrian Bundesliga at Sturm Graz. There are others, too, like South African winger Luther Singh, 28, who is active but has fallen out of the national fold.
These players, among many others, showed that the pipeline of players of Indian descent was slowly building. The four players going to the 2026 World Cup are a culmination of that process.
New Zealand attacking midfielder Sarpreet Singh was born in Auckland. Despite the football ecosystem in New Zealand not being the strongest, the proud Punjabi earned a move to Bayern Munich. Though he could not fulfil his early promise at the highest level, he has played 223 games in his club career scoring 41 and assisting 42. In the past couple of years, he has re-established himself in the national team and the 27-year-old is now a key figure for the Kiwis. He has three goals and seven assists from 28 games and started against England on June 7. More importantly, his rise has had a measurable impact. For instance, youth players of Indian heritage in New Zealand grew 16 per cent over the past year.
Qatar winger Tahsin Mohammed Jamshid, son of a Malayali accountant who played university football, grew up in Doha and trained at the premier Aspire Academy. He has been with the senior team of Qatar Stars League club Al-Duhail since 2024 and has made 27 appearances so far, scoring three goals. He also made his national team debut in 2024. Jamshid, who turns 20 on June 16, has since played three times for Qatar, most recently on June 7.
Australian winger Nishan Velupillay, whose father is of Sri Lankan Tamil heritage and mother an Anglo-Indian, has made 138 appearances for Melbourne Victory since his breakthrough in 2021, scoring 25 goals and assisting 14. The 25-year-old has seven caps for the Socceroos, contributing three goals and one assist. His latest game was 23 minutes against Mexico on May 31.
DR Congo defensive midfielder Samuel Moutoussamy also has Tamil roots through his father. The 29-year-old has racked up 343 career club appearances, including 144 across eight seasons in the French top tier, Ligue 1, and eight in the Europa League for French club Nantes. He made his national team debut in 2019 and has 57 caps, including 90 minutes against Denmark on June 3.
The conditions that produced these players are now more widespread—South Asian communities are deeper into local football cultures and academies are more actively reaching out to diverse populations. As a result, more children from Indian families grow up dreaming in the global language of the beautiful game. In the last 10 years, Indian-origin players such as Dilan Markanday and Yan Dhanda have come through at Tottenham Hotspur and Liverpool, respectively.
We may not yet be able to predict the next Indian-origin player who could reach the World Cup stage. It is impossible to say how many will be at the 2030 World Cup, or if the number will increase or decrease. But, it is likely that the next Indian-origin star has already been discovered and is out there refining his craft.
Familiar face
From ISL to the World Cup
Duckens Nazon
When the striker left Kerala Blasters after the 2016 ISL, he had eight goals and one assist in 19 games for Haiti. He scored a stunning goal against Delhi Dynamos in the playoffs semifinal, but never quite captured the imagination of the Blasters faithful like his compatriot Kervens Belfort. But, while Belfort last played for Haiti in 2017, Nazon, now 32, has 44 goals and 11 assists in 78 games, and is the country’s all-time top scorer.
He left Kochi for Wolverhampton Wanderers and played in the U23 Premier League in England and in the senior fourth and third divisions on loan. He also had stints in Belgium, France, Bulgaria, Turkey and Iran. His club career: 324 games, 101 goals and 25 assists. Nazon comes into the World Cup as Haiti’s talisman.