HOCKEY · TRIBUTE
The unsung midfielder of Indian hockey
Nilakanta Sharma scored in his 163rd match on Tuesday night, then confirmed that Jalandhar will be his last tournament for India. Nine years, an Olympic bronze and two Asian Games golds later, the man who never gave the ball away is making room for the next ones.
Indian Sports Journal · 28 October 2026
Jalandhar, 27 October 2026: lifted by his teammates after the 13–0 win over Bangladesh, on the night he said this tournament would be his last for India.
Midway through the second quarter on Tuesday, with India already comfortable against Bangladesh in their Asian Champions Trophy opener, Nilakanta Sharma took a pass at the top of the circle, turned sharply off his marker and struck low into the net. It was his 20th goal for India, in his 163rd match. India won 13–0 at the Olympian Surjit Singh Hockey Stadium in Jalandhar.
After the whistle, he said what some in the squad already knew. This tournament is his last in an India shirt.
"It is a decision that I took on my own after the Asian Games, no one forced me," he told PTI. "This decision I took for the future generation. There are plenty of talented players waiting in the wings and they need to get an opportunity."
He is 31. He could, by his own account, have pushed on towards Los Angeles 2028. He chose not to. "I played for the national team for nine-ten years but there are a lot of players behind us," he said. "Everyone dreams of playing in the Olympics."
Hockey India sources told PTI that Jarmanpreet Singh, Mandeep Singh and Amit Rohidas are also playing their final assignment in Jalandhar, part of a transition the federation is steering towards 2028. Four veterans, one tournament. But Nilakanta's exit is the one that explains something about how this India team was built.
Kontha Ahallup
Shanglakpam Nilakanta Sharma was born on 2 May 1995 in Imphal East, and grew up in Kontha Ahallup Makha Leikai, a village on the fringe of the district. His father, Shanglakpam Inaocha Sharma, served as a priest at the temple near their home, Nilakanta told The Hockey Paper in 2022.
At home in Kontha Ahallup Makha Leikai, with his mother. The new house was built with what hockey paid him.
Manipur is football country. Hockey meant a 5 km cycle to the only ground around, and the turf was free only from 5 to 8:30 in the morning, so that is when he trained. "I didn't even have a proper hockey stick, shoes, or gear," he has said.
He came through the Posterior Hockey Academy in Manipur, then moved in 2011 to the Madhya Pradesh Hockey Academy in Bhopal, the state system that would later produce Vivek Sagar Prasad. His models were the Manipuri internationals who had gone before him: Chinglensana Singh and Kothajit Singh.
The state has a long, thin line of Olympic hockey men. Pangambam Nilakomol Singh, a goalkeeper, is regarded as Manipur's first Olympian, at Los Angeles 1984. Khetrimayum Thoiba Singh played in Seoul in 1988. Kothajit went to London and Rio, Chinglensana to Rio. None of them came home with a medal, because India won no men's Olympic hockey medal between 1980 and 2021. Nilakanta was the only Manipuri in India's Tokyo squad. On our reading of the records, he is the state's first Olympic medallist in the sport.
The long way in
The junior years were fast. A first India junior call-up for the 2014 Sultan of Johor Cup, where India beat Great Britain in the final. Junior Asia Cup gold in Kuantan in 2015, 6–2 over Pakistan. Then Lucknow, December 2016: the Junior World Cup, won 2–1 over Belgium in front of a home crowd, India's second junior world title. The names on that team sheet are the names on the Tokyo podium five years later: Harmanpreet, Simranjeet, Gurjant, Sumit, Varun Kumar.
Lucknow, 18 December 2016: world champions at 21.
The senior years were slower. He made his debut against Belgium on India's tour of Europe in 2017, then spent much of the next year on standby lists: the Hockey World League Final, the 2018 Champions Trophy. He was not in the squad that won Asian Games bronze in Jakarta. He has admitted since that he took his preparation lightly in that period and paid for it.
The first senior title came at the 2018 Asian Champions Trophy in Muscat, shared with Pakistan after the final was washed out. A World Cup in Bhubaneswar followed, where India finished sixth, then the FIH Series Finals and the Tokyo test event in 2019, both won. By the time Graham Reid named his 16 for the Olympics, Nilakanta was no longer the player waiting outside the room.
Tokyo
On 30 July 2021, against hosts Japan, he deflected in Surender Kumar's pass from the left in the 51st minute to put India 4–2 up. Earlier in the same match, Shamsher Singh's goal had come off a deflection of Nilakanta's shot. India won 5–3 and finished second in their pool.
Six days later came the bronze-medal match against Germany. India won 5–4. Simranjeet Singh's second-quarter goal, the Hindustan Times reported, came from Nilakanta's pass out of midfield.
Tokyo, August 2021: the squad with their medals at the rings. India's first Olympic hockey medal since Moscow 1980.
It was India's first Olympic hockey medal since Moscow 1980. Back in Kontha Ahallup, his neighbourhood marked it with Thabak Chongba, the traditional Manipuri circle dance, and chants of his name. At the time he was a senior ticket collector with Indian Railways. Manipur's Chief Minister announced a reward of ₹75 lakh and a government job; asked what he wanted, Nilakanta had said, simply, a suitable government job. He chose the state's Youth Affairs and Sports Department, so that he could coach. That November, President Ram Nath Kovind presented him with the Arjuna Award.
"It was absolutely an incredible feeling to win the bronze medal and I have received a lot of love from the people of Manipur," he said that year. "I hope my performance in Tokyo has inspired more youngsters from my state to take up hockey."
What he was
He was a central and attacking midfielder, the link between the back line and the strikers, and the job was less about scoring than about not losing. Twenty goals in 163 matches is one every eight games. His value was in the other seven.
Against South Africa. "I don't want to lose the ball, so just protect the ball."
He said as much himself after India beat Pakistan 2–1 at the 2024 Asian Champions Trophy in Hulunbuir, when he was named Hero of the Match. "I know when I have the ball, I don't want to lose the ball, so just protect the ball. That's the motive for me."
Two coaching regimes trusted him for it. Reid took him to Tokyo and to the 2023 World Cup. Craig Fulton picked him for the 2026 World Cup in Belgium and the Netherlands, where India finished eighth, and had used him in the Pro League, where in June he scored twice in a week that mattered: the goal that put India 2–1 up against Pakistan in London, in a match India won 4–3, and a solo run through the German defence for 3–0 in a 3–1 win, on the night Manpreet Singh became India's most-capped player.
Against Germany in the FIH Pro League, June 2026. Three defenders, one ball, and he kept it.
In between there was a Commonwealth Games silver in Birmingham, Asian Champions Trophy titles in Chennai in 2023 and Hulunbuir in 2024, a 100th cap against the Netherlands in Barcelona in July 2023, and two seasons with the Hyderabad Toofans in the revived Hockey India League, who made him their first purchase at the 2024 auction, for ₹34 lakh, and finished runners-up and then third, with his equaliser in the bronze-medal match this January.
And there was the Asian Games. In Hangzhou, in 2023, he was in the squad from the first day, scored in the 12–0 win over Bangladesh and was part of the 5–1 final win over Japan that sent India straight to Paris. Paris itself he watched as one of three alternates. Then Nagoya, this October, where he travelled as a reserve outside the 18 and expected to stay there.
Team India at the Asian Games. He has two golds from the Games, won in two very different ways.
Raj Kumar Pal broke his left thumb in the last pool match. Fulton called Nilakanta in. "It's just unfortunate for Raj," the coach said. "At the same time, we have great experience that's coming in. Nilakanta has been at the Olympics, World Cup. So it's a nice addition in terms of an experienced player coming in at an important time."
He played the semi-final, won 4–3 against Pakistan, and the final, won 5–1 against Malaysia on 3 October. India had never defended the men's Asian Games title before. The gold sealed a place at Los Angeles 2028. Two matches, one gold, and, by his own telling, the moment he knew.
"I discussed that with our coach during the Asian Games," he said this week. "I told him that I want to bid adieu in the next tournament because I feel it's the right time for me."
What comes next
Hockey India's president, Dilip Tirkey, said Nilakanta had "served Indian hockey with great dedication and pride", and that his "contributions in midfield and commitment to the team have been valuable throughout his international career." Secretary General Bhola Nath Singh called him "a valuable member of Indian hockey" whose "contributions to the team over the years will always be appreciated."
Against Korea. Photo: Indian Sports Journal.
Nilakanta's own plans are already in place. The job he chose after Tokyo was the point. "After Tokyo, when my state offered me a job, I chose the sports department, so that I can coach the next generation players," he said. "I want to take juniors to the next level." Asked about full-time coaching, he was careful: "When I am playing, I only think about the game. If I make such a decision, I will tell you about it."
India play on in Jalandhar. His cap and goal counts will move once or twice more before they stop. The numbers that will not change are these: one Junior World Cup, one Olympic bronze, one Commonwealth silver, three Asian Champions Trophies, two Asian Games golds. Nine years of being there.
He was not the headline. He was the constant.
The career, counted.
Caps and goals as of 27 October 2026. India's Asian Champions Trophy campaign continues in Jalandhar.
Our 19-slide tribute to Nilakanta Sharma is on Instagram: @indiansportsjournal.