MANPREET Singh said the dream of winning an Olympic gold at Los Angeles in 2028 is what drives him right now. "My dream is to win gold at Olympics and a World Cup medal. This hunger is the reason for my longevity," he said during an online interaction from Rotterdam, where the team is currently at for the Pro League.
The midfielder, who became the most capped men's Indian player after featuring in a 413rd senior match against Germany on Wednesday, added that: "I always knew that if I had to play well for India I need to be fit to compete with the youngsters and that always motivates me. "And the bigger motivation is my family, whenever they (especially my two children, wife and mother) see me in TV, they say you played well, but you need to play much better," he said.
Apart from the LA Games in 2028 and the World Cup in August, his other big immediate goal is gold at the Asian Games in Japan. "We are really excited about the World Cup and Asian Games because it's been a long time that we won a medal in the World Cup and it's important that we accomplish that. Asian Games is also very important because it's an Olympic qualifier for us," he said.
One reason for his longevity is that he has consistently worked on his fitness and went on a weight-loss programme after, to his horror, the weighing machine spat out '73'. "The heaviest I had ever been," he had told this daily in 2025. "When we were playing in the Asian Champions Trophy, I felt heavy," he said. "I realised if I want to play good hockey, I must focus on fitness first."
That renewed focus on diet has paid dividends but he knows it's a long road to 2028. "Definitely the target is to play till LA but for that I need to keep my fitness and that's definitely going to be a challenge. Personally, I need to take care of that," he said. "LA is my target but I need to keep my fitness. But if I fail I won't want to take it that long, I don't want to be a unfit player in the team and deny a youngster a place in the side."
