Puran Bahadur Thapa

Puran Bahadur Thapa (born 1928) is an Indian footballer who played for the India national team and the Services football team. He scored a hat-trick for the national team in a 3–1 win against Pakistan in the 1954 Colombo Cup at the Eden Gardens. It was the second hat-trick by an Indian footballer post-independence in international football after Sheoo Mewalal.^{[2][1][3][4][5]}

Puran Bahadur Thapa

Personal information
Date of birth	1928
Place of birth	Upper Mawprem, Shillong,[1] British India (now in Meghalaya)
Position(s)	Midfielder
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	8th Gorkha Rifles
	Gorkha Brigade
	Services
International career
	India	?	(4)
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Career

Thapa was an officer in the Indian Army^[6] and represented the Gorkha Brigade and Services in the Santosh Trophy and domestic tournaments.^[1]

International goals

Scores and results list India's goal tally first.

No.	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition
1.	23 December 1954	Calcutta FC Ground, Calcutta, India	Burma	2–1	1954 Colombo Cup
2.	26 December 1954	Calcutta FC Ground, Calcutta, India	Pakistan	3–1	1954 Colombo Cup
3.
4.

Honours

India

• Colombo Cup: 1954,^[7] 1955^[1]

References

1. Kapadia, Novy (24 April 1983). "Puran Bahadur Thapa: India's first hat-trick man". Sportskeeda.
2. "10 players who have scored a hat-trick while playing for Indian national team | Goal.com India". www.goal.com. 22 April 2020. Retrieved 20 July 2023. Sheoo Mewalal scored the first hat-trick post-independence in a 4-0 win against Burma in the Colombo Quadrangular tournament.
3. "Meet India's first hat-trick scorer from Meghalaya". The Northeast Today. 16 June 2018.
4. Chatterjee, Sayan (10 December 2020). "Who was the first Indian to score an international hat-trick in football". The Bridge.
5. "International hat-tricks scored by Indian footballers". Sportstar. 3 May 2020. Two years after Mewalal, Puran Bahadur Thapa bagged a hat-trick to steer India to a 3-1 triumph against Pakistan in the Calcutta Quadrangular tournament held at the Eden Gardens.
6. Basu, Jaydeep (26 February 2020). "No Country for Strikers: The Forgotten Goal Poachers of Indian Football". newsclick.in. Retrieved 29 June 2023.
7. Morrison, Neil (1999). "Asian Quadrangular Tournament 1954 (Calcutta, India)". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 27 September 2022. Retrieved 17 August 2022.