Deependra Singh Negi (born 20 November 1998) 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 le ...

who is playing as a

midfielder 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

Hyderabad FC Hyderabad Football Club is an Indian professional football club based in Hyderabad, Telangana. The club competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Founded on 27 August 2019, the club replaced Pune City after t ...

. He was the captain of the India U17 National Team.

Career

Born in

Uttarakhand Uttarakhand ( , or ; , ), also known as Uttaranchal ( ; the official name until 2007), is a state in the northern part of India. It is often referred to as the "Devbhumi" (literally 'Land of the Gods') due to its religious significance and ...

, Negi began his career with the

AIFF Elite Academy The AIFF Elite Academy is the elite academy of the overall AIFF Academies. Started on 1 February 2013, the Elite Academy was started under a youth development project that was started between the AIFF and FIFA. The Elite Academy is the final fro ...

before moving to Spain to attend trials with various Spanish clubs, including

Gimnàstic de Tarragona Club Gimnàstic de Tarragona, commonly known as Gimnàstic Tarragona or sometimes just Nàstic, is a Spanish sports club based in Tarragona, in the autonomous community of Catalonia. Its football team plays in Primera División RFEF – Group 2. ...

in 2017. In September 2016, it was announced that Negi had signed with CF Reus of the

Segunda División The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Segunda División, commercially known as LaLiga SmartBank for sponsorship reasons, is the men's second professional association football division of the Spanish football league system. Administrated by the Lig ...

Kerala Blasters

On 9 December 2017 it was announced that Negi had returned to India to sign with the

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

of the

Indian Super League The Indian Super League (ISL) is an Indian professional league for men's association football clubs. At the top of the Indian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Organised by the All India Football Federat ...

. He made his professional debut for the club on 27 January 2018 against

Delhi Dynamos Odisha Football Club () is an Indian professional football club based in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, that competes in the Indian Super League, the top flight of Indian football. Prior to the inaugural Indian Super League season, the club was founded ...

. He came on as a substitute for

Karan Sawhney Karan Atul Sawhney (born 23 March 1992) is an Indian professional association football, footballer who last played as a forward (association football)#Centre-forward, striker for Kerala Blasters. Career Early career Born in Mumbai, Maharashtra ...

at halftime and made an immediate impact for the club as he scored the Kerala Blasters equalizer in the 48th minute from a corner. He then contributed to the second goal by drawing a penalty after a run into the box, which was then converted by

Iain Hume Iain Edward Hume (born 30 October 1983) is a Canadian football manager and former professional soccer player who played as a forward. He began his career at Tranmere Rovers in 2000, and six years later moved to Leicester City for an initial £5 ...

. The Kerala Blasters would win the match 2–1 and Negi was awarded with the Hero of the Match award.

International career

Negi has represented the India under-17 and under 20 side. He was a former India under-17 national team captain. He has represented India in the

SAFF South Asian Football Federation (SAFF), founded in 1997, is an association of the football playing nations in South Asia and is part of the larger Asian Football Confederation. The members of the association are Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Mald ...

championship in Nepal where the Indian team defeated Nepal 1-0 in the final played at the Dasharath Stadium in Kathmandu. Negi has also participated in the

AFC Cup The AFC Cup is an annual continental club football competition organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Under its current rules, the competition is played primarily between clubs from nations that did not receive direct qualifying s ...

qualifiers held in Kuwait.

Club career

In 2016, at the age of 17, Deependra Singh Negi moved to Spain after signing professional terms with Spanish Club CF Reus. Club de Futbol Reus Deportiu, better known as just Reus, participates in the Spanish Segunda Division, the second tier of the football pyramid in Spain. The team plays all its matches at the 4,700 seater Estadi Municipal, in the autonomous region of Reus,

Catalonia Catalonia (; ca, Catalunya ; Aranese Occitan: ''Catalonha'' ; es, Cataluña ) is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy. Most of the territory (except the Val d'Aran) lies on the north ...

. Prior to this, Negi joined the Catalonians' U19 team for practice sessions. Negi was the second Indian youngster to move to Spain in order to earn a contract, after defender Avneet Bharti shifted base to the European country earlier. Negi was selected to play for the

, an

team in 2017. His contract with Kerala Blasters started from 9 December 2017 and runs till 30 May 2020. Negi made his professional debut for the side in 2017-18 Indian Super League Season against

. In his debut game, he started playing from second half and played until the end of the match as Kerala Blasters won 2–1. Negi became Hero of the match in his debut match by scoring his first goal in just the second minute of his playing time and became the second youngest footballer in the league to score a goal.

Career statistics

References

External links

Indian Super League Profile
{{DEFAULTSORT:Negi, Deependra 1998 births Living people People from Uttarakhand Indian footballers AIFF Elite Academy players Kerala Blasters FC players Kerala Blasters FC Reserves and Academy players Association football midfielders Footballers from Uttarakhand Indian Super League players India youth international footballers Indian expatriate footballers Hyderabad FC players I-League 2nd Division players CF Reus Deportiu players