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India's T20I vice-captain Shubman Gill made an amazing revelation about when and how he started watching football. The star batter credited Brazilian footballer Neymar for the same.
Shubman Gill started watching the sport from the 2014 football World Cup. He revealed that he loved watching Neymar and would pick whichever team the footballer played for.
Gill added that he does not play the FIFA (Fédération Internationale de Football Association) video game as often these days as he used to. He also mentioned some of the popular English Premier League clubs that he would pick while playing the game.
"I started actually watching football because of Neymar. I used to love watching the 2014 World Cup. I started watching football properly then. And I used to love watching Neymar, so whatever team he was in, I used to pick that. Ever since he's gone to Saudi and now back to Brazil, I've kind of stopped playing FIFA. But whenever I do play, I remember I used to pick Liverpool in between because they had a very strong team. And then Man City," he said. (via Apple Music's YouTube channel)
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The 26-year-old returned to India's T20I side after last having played before the 2024 T20 World Cup. When the squad for the ongoing Asia Cup 2025 came out, he was not only named in the list of 15 players but also the vice-captain. In India's first game of the multination tournament, Gill scored an unbeaten 20 off nine balls as they chased down a 58-run target in 4.3 overs.
Shubman Gill on meeting Bruno Fernandes and Manchester United
Carrying on the football talk, Shubman Gill also spoke about the collaboration that the Indian cricket team had with Manchester United. India were recently in England for a five-match Test series, and the fourth game of the series was played in Manchester.
The Indian team met the Manchester United players at the club's training facility at Old Trafford. Gill reflected that it was amazing to have met the players. In what was a fun collaboration, players from both sides played cricket and football with each other.
He mentioned having met United players Mason Mount and Bruno Fernandes as well.
"We went to see all the players when we were in Manchester. Yeah, it was like a team collaboration between the Indian cricket team and the Manchester United team. All the players were really amazing. I met Mason Mount, whom I have known from before when he was playing in Chelsea, and met Bruno Fernandes. Most of the players, they all were so nice and so kind. We spoke about so much," he said. (via the aforementioned source)
It was Shubman Gill's first tour as India's Test captain. He had a remarkable series both as a batter and as the leader. The visitors leveled the series 2-2 with a thrilling win in the final Test.
Gill truly led from the front. He ended as the highest run-getter with 754 runs from five games with four hundreds, including a double hundred.
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Rishabh is an Indian Sports writer at Sportskeeda who covers Kabaddi, Hockey, Indian football and Olympic sports for the website. He has an overall experience of around 3 years and has worked with My Khel in the past along with interning at The News Minute, Times Network and Deccan Herald.
Rishabh has done MA in Media and Communication Studies. He also worked in Sportskeeda’s Comms team and won the ‘Commentator of the Month’ award twice. He covered the Pro Kabbadi League and two of his articles were also featured on Jaipur Pink Panthers’ official website.
Rishabh started following sports after 2020 Olympics and also after his experience of watching Bengaluru FC at the Kanteerava Stadium in the ISL between 2019 and 2023. His favorite athlete is Neeraj Chopra as he’s brought a revolution in Indian sports. His historic gold medal win at the 2020 Olympics left a lasting impact on Rishabh.
He strives to ensure that his articles are accurate and he verifies information from multiple credible sources. When not working, he likes playing badminton and football.
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