Top six male Indian footballers playing overseas in 2026

Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhingan are some notable Indian footballers to have played overseas in the past!

For any Indian footballer, playing in a foreign country has proven to be quite a challenging task in the 21st century. Because of the Indian national football team’s low ranking in the FIFA World Rankings and all the issues that come with adapting to a new country’s environment, many footballers tend to avoid the hassle of moving abroad to play football.

There have, of course, been some notable footballers to have played overseas in the past – including Gurpreet Singh Sandhu, Sunil Chhetri and Sandesh Jhingan. With that being said, there are still a few interesting names who have opted to challenge themselves and play football in a foreign league.

With the prospect of raising their quality and football standards, these Indian footballers moved abroad to ensure they earned a unique experience in football. Here, we look at the top six male Indian football players overseas in 2026.

6. Navaldeep Singh

Navaldeep Singh earned quite a bit of praise coming up through the youth system in Indian football, but he decided to challenge himself elsewhere after earning attention from foreign clubs. In 2023, Navaldeep opted to join Hong Kong club Leaper Metro Gallery and went on to play in the Hong Kong First Division as well. The 25-year-old is currently playing for Hong Kong First Division team Sham Shui Po FC, having joined them in the 2025 summer transfer window!

Navaldeep made nine appearances for Leaper MG, scoring two goals for them and has made eight appearances in the 2025-26 Hong Kong First Division, but has been unable to score any goals. The 25-year-old has mostly been used as an impact substitute at Sham Shui Po FC this season, but is at least able to regularly play football abroad.

5. Aniket Bharti

Aniket Bharti is eligible to play for the Indian football team through his ancestry, but he has never played in Indian football in his life. He has moved all around in his youth career, playing for a variety of different clubs’ youth teams. Bharti is currently playing for the under-20 team of Independiente Santa Fe and has struggled to get into their senior team over the last few years.

The exciting winger, who has played for multiple Polish clubs in his career – including Lechia Gdansk – is currently still learning his trade with Independiente Santa Fe in Colombia and remains one of the few Indian footballers playing in foreign leagues in 2026.

4. Gabriel Fernandes

Gabriel Fernandes actually has a long-standing association with Indian football, as he came up the system for Dempo and Sporting Club de Goa before debuting for the latter. He made quite the impact for Sporting Club de Goa, before also going on to play for Dempo SC and helping them win the 2014-15 Federation Cup title.

Fernandes played for clubs like FC Goa and East Bengal in his career, but a nasty injury sustained in the 2017-18 campaign basically ended his stint in Indian Football. In 2019, Fernandes moved to England to play for the Hellenic Football League team Shrivenham FC. He’s basically been playing in the England village football scene for the last few years, but is still at least playing football in a foreign country like England.

3. Yohaan Benjamin

Yohaan Benjamin’s impressive performances for the India under-19 national team earned him a lot of praise and attention from foreign clubs as well. Benjamin, a graduate of the Shillong Lajong youth academy, decided to take a major step forward in his career by joining the youth team of Slovenian club NK Bravo.

He joined up with the under-19 team of the Slovenian side in August (2025), and has become quite an important player for them as well. Indeed, Benjamin has played in the UEFA Youth League with NK Bravo, featuring in their loss to FC Porto’s U19 team earlier this season.

He has been particularly impressive in the NextGen Liga, the division for youth teams in Slovenia, with Benjamin making eight appearances and scoring three goals for NK Bravo U19. Even though he’s still working on his development, the teenager will push for a chance to get promoted to NK Bravo’s senior team and start playing in the Slovenian top division in the future.

2. Aman Khanna

Aman Khanna proved himself to be quite a versatile defensive player when coming up the scene at Chennaiyin FC’s youth system, having even played for their under-18 team. Khanna spent three years with the Marina Machans’ youth teams and was so impressive that he even earned a move to Canadian club FC London.

FC London plays in the League1 Ontario, which is a semi-professional division that is behind the Canadian Premier League. Despite that, Khanna has worked on developing his football skills at FC London, playing in a variety of defensive positions and also as a central midfielder, as it remains to be seen if he returns to Indian football anytime soon.

1. Som Kumar

Som Kumar made a decent impact for Kerala Blasters in the 2024-25 season, making quite a few appearances for them in the ISL.  However, the young goalkeeper, who has made 11 appearances for India U-17 in the past, opted to move away from Kerala Blasters and move to a foreign league by joining Slovenian club Radomlje FC. Kumar has taken inspiration from Gurpreet Singh Sandhu in testing himself in a challenging foreign division, as he will be able to play under a heightened sense of intensity for Radomlje FC.

Kumar made his debut for the Slovenian PrvaLiga club in a friendly match in July (2025) and has mostly played, but his inability to play for their senior team caused Kumar to be loaned out to ND Slovan LJ for the second half of the 2025-26 season. He is likely to return to Radomlje soon, as the 20-year-old aims to work harder for more regular playing time to test his skills against the top players in the Slovenian division.

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