Puran Bahadur Thapa (born 1928) is an Indian

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 played for the India national team and the

Services football team The Services football team is an Indian football team representing the Indian Armed Forces in Indian state football competitions. It is operated by the Services Sports Control Board. Santosh Trophy Services have appeared in the final of the S ...

. He scored a hat-trick for the national team in a 3–1 win against

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in the 1954 Colombo Cup at the

Eden Gardens The Eden Gardens is a cricket ground in Kolkata, India. Established in 1864, it is the oldest and second-largest cricket stadium in India and third-largest in the world. The stadium currently has a capacity of 66,000. Eden Gardens is often re ...

. It was the second hat-trick by an Indian footballer post-independence in international football after

Sheoo Mewalal Sheoo Mewalal (also known as Sahu Mewalal; 1 July 1926 – 27 December 2008) was an Indian footballer in Kolkata. He played as a striker and was known for his fitness, bicycle kicks, and goal-scoring abilities, especially using the rabona kick ...

Career

Thapa was an officer in the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

and represented the Gorkha Brigade and

Services Service may refer to: Activities * Administrative service, a required part of the workload of university faculty * Civil service, the body of employees of a government * Community service, volunteer service for the benefit of a community or a p ...

in the

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state-level football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under ...

and domestic tournaments.

International goals

:''Scores and results list India's goal tally first.''

Honours

India *

Colombo Cup The Colombo Cup was an annual football tournament first held in Colombo, Ceylon. It was also known as Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament. Established in 1952 by the Ceylon Football Association as a part of the Colombo Fair, teams from India, Pa ...

1954 Events January * January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany. * January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting. * January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...

1955 Events January * January 3 – José Ramón Guizado becomes president of Panama. * January 17 – , the first nuclear-powered submarine, puts to sea for the first time, from Groton, Connecticut. * January 18– 20 – Battle of Yijian ...

References

1928 births Living people Indian men's footballers India men's international footballers Footballers from Meghalaya People from Shillong Indian Gorkhas Men's association football midfielders Indian Army personnel {{India-footy-bio-stub