Jagatjit Cotton & Textile Football Club, popularly JCT FC, was an Indian professional football club located in Punjab. The Hoshiarpur based club (founded in 1971) is known for producing and nurturing some of the top football players of India. They were sponsored by Jagatjit cotton & textile mills under the leadership of Mr. Samir Thapar. JCT has been involved in Punjab Football Association (PFA) for the last three decades and also won the inaugural NFL title in the 1996/97 season.
In 2007 , JCT announced an association with English club Wolverhampton Wanderers as a part of Wolverhampton-India project. However in 2011, the club announced its disbanding due to less viewership issues. During this span, the club produced some topclass players listed below.
1.Inder Singh
Inder Singh is a former Indian football player and captain who played for Leaders club (Jalandhar), JCT mills(later named as JCT FC) and also Indian national team as a forward.In 1962, he impressed leaders club with his talent that led to his selection in the club. In his first season with the club , he played in the DCM trophy in Delhi which had well established teams participating in it like Mohammedan and Mafatlal mills. Singh finished as the top scorer of the club as the club ended the tournament at third place.
The Arjuna awardee made his debut for India in 1963. However the world recognised Inder singh in 1964 when he finished the AFC Asian cup as the joint top scorer, which included his goals against South Korea and Hong Kong, as India finished second in the tournament. He was awarded the ‘Best Right-out’ at the tournament. Later on he went on to play in a lot of prestigious tournaments for India and that earned him a lot of success. In 1967, he was included in the Asian All Stars 11 that played Arsenal in Kuala Lumpur.
In 1973, he was asked to play for Malaysian national team by the then Malaysian Prime Minister but Singh refused the offer showing his loyalty towards India and Punjab. In 1974, Singh left leaders and joined JCT mills.
During his spell with Mills, he won two Durand cups in 1975 & 1983 and reached the finals five times.He was hugely successful for Punjab while playing in Santosh trophy 1974/75, as he scored 23 goals out of 46 goals scored by Punjab in that tournament which was eventually won by Punjab.His list of awards includes Arjuna award(1969) ,Delhi sports journalists association award (1974) and ” Pride of Phagwara” award(2003).He last played professional football as a player in 1985 for Mills , later he went on to manage the club for 16 years, till 2001.