Who is Jamshid? The Indian Origin Player at FIFA World Cup 2026
There is a 19-year-old boy from Doha who will play at the FIFA World Cup 2026 in the United States. His name is Tahsin Mohammad Jamshid. He was born in Qatar, grew up in its stadiums, and trained in its academies. But his roots go back to a small town in Kerala, India, and his story starts not with him, but with his father.
The Father Who Never Got His Chance
Jamshid Thachankandy is from Calicut, Kerala. He grew up loving football in a state where the sport runs deep. He was good enough to be called to the India youth football camp in 1992. That is no small thing. Getting a national call-up at any level means you are among the best in the country.
But Jamshid did not go.
Calicut University needed him for the Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Shield, a big college football tournament. He had a degree to finish. He had a life to build. So he made his choice, stayed back, and played for his university instead. His team won the tournament. “When we won the Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Shield, it was like winning a World Cup for each one of us,” he says today.
He also played alongside Jo Paul Ancheri, one of Kerala’s finest footballers of that era. But the national call-up, that one chance to represent India, was something he never got back.
Four years later, in 1996, Jamshid left Calicut for Doha, Qatar. He moved with his wife Shyma, who is from Valapattanam. He left behind a timber business and a football career that had been cut short by injury. He was starting fresh in a new country.
Fridays at the Stadium
In Qatar, Fridays are holidays. Jamshid spent his Fridays the way he always had, around football. He would go to local stadiums with friends and co-workers. And he would bring his younger son along.
That younger son was Tahsin.
“He used to sit near the dug-out area,” Jamshid remembers. “Later he would ask me and my friends to dribble with him, to make him learn football. That was his first step.”
It is a simple image, a little boy sitting by the dug-out, watching grown men play, then asking them to pass the ball to him. But that is where it all began. Those Friday afternoons, on local pitches in Doha, are where Tahsin Mohammad Jamshid first fell in love with football.
From the Dug-Out to the Academy
From those informal Friday games, Tahsin moved to the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qasim Sports Academy. It was an early sign that the coaches around him could see something in the way he played. Two Algerian instructors at the academy spent hours working with him, on his attacking runs, his angles, and his movement off the ball.
In 2017, Tahsin joined the sub-junior team of Al-Duhail SC, one of Qatar’s top clubs. Then came the next big step, the Aspire Academy. This is Qatar’s top football development programme, and it is where most of the current Qatar national team players were trained and shaped. The club bus would pick Tahsin up every morning and drop him back in the evening.
“All he talked about was football,” his father says.
He was not just a one-position player either. Tahsin could play as a forward, a left winger, or a right winger. His ability to operate from wide areas and carry the ball at defenders made him stand out early. At Al-Duhail, he trained and played alongside big names like Marco Verratti and Philippe Coutinho, players who had performed at the highest levels of European football.
Making His Way Into Senior Football
Tahsin made his Under-17 debut for Qatar in 2023. The following year, he made his Under-19 debut. These are important steps for any young player, moving through the age-group teams is how players build their way toward the senior squad.
Then, in 2024, Tahsin made his professional senior debut for Al-Duhail SC in the Qatar Stars League. He came on as a substitute for Ibrahima Diallo, a midfielder who had played in the English Premier League. Just two months after that club debut, Tahsin received his first call-up to the Qatar senior national team.
He was still a teenager.
In September 2024, at just 17 years, 11 months, and 21 days old, Tahsin started for Qatar against Afghanistan in a World Cup qualifier held in Saudi Arabia. The match ended 0-0. His father, Jamshid, was in the stands watching.
“We went to watch him play and cheered for him and the Qatar team,” Jamshid says.
That qualifier was part of the same campaign in which Qatar also faced India. The son of a man who once had the chance to play for India was now playing against India, wearing the Qatar jersey.
A Huge Fan of Cristiano Ronaldo
Growing up in Doha, Tahsin had a front-row seat to one of the greatest football tournaments ever held, the 2022 FIFA World Cup, hosted in Qatar. He watched matches from those same stadiums where his father used to play on Fridays.
He was a huge Cristiano Ronaldo fan. He followed every Portugal match during that tournament. He also cheered for Qatar in the group stage, before the host nation was knocked out.
Now, just a few years later, Tahsin will not be watching from the stands. He will be on the pitch.
The Kerala Connection
Tahsin was born in Doha. He grew up in Qatar, trained in Qatar, and plays for Qatar. But he also holds an Indian passport, his father’s country, the land his parents came from, a place he has never actually lived in.
By next year, as per law, he will have to choose between the two nationalities.
“Possibly, he will be opting for a Qatar passport then,” Jamshid says.
It is a straightforward statement. Tahsin’s football career is in Qatar. His future is in Qatar. The choice, when it comes, will most likely follow the path his life has already taken.
But the Kerala connection remains. Jamshid still speaks about Thalassery, about Calicut University, about the Sir Ashutosh Mukherjee Shield. His wife Shyma is from Valapattanam. Those roots do not disappear just because the family lives in Doha.
“We have been getting a lot of messages and calls from Kerala,” Jamshid says. “People are telling us they will pray for Tahsin.”
The First Player of Indian Origin at a World Cup Since 2006
Tahsin’s place in the Qatar squad for the 2026 FIFA World Cup makes him the first player of Indian origin to be at the tournament since Vikash Dhorasoo played for France in 2006. That is a gap of twenty years.
Dhorasoo was born in France to parents of Indian origin. Tahsin was born in Qatar to parents from Kerala. The connection to India in both cases runs through family and heritage rather than through the country itself. But the link is real.
For a country like India, which has struggled to make its mark in global football, the fact that a player with Indian roots is at the World Cup, even if he plays for another nation, is worth noting.
Qatar at the 2026 World Cup
Qatar are in Group A at the 2026 FIFA World Cup. They open their campaign against Switzerland on June 13 in San Francisco. After that, they face Canada and Bosnia and Herzegovina to complete the group stage.
Qatar qualified for the tournament last October with a 2-1 win over the UAE. They are coached by Julen Lopetegui, the experienced Spanish manager who has previously managed clubs like Real Madrid, Sevilla, and Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Tahsin is part of the 26-man squad that has travelled to the United States for the tournament. At 19 years old, he is one of the youngest players in the group. Whether he starts or comes off the bench, his presence in the squad alone is a big achievement for a teenager.
The Father Watching From Doha
Jamshid Thachankandy is back in Doha now. He will not be in San Francisco on June 13 when Qatar play Switzerland. He will be watching from home.
His journey, from the football pitches of Calicut to a timber business, from a missed national call-up in 1992 to immigrant life in Doha, from Friday kickabouts at local stadiums to watching his son train at Qatar’s elite academies, has led to this moment.
“Now to see my son Tahsin play in the FIFA World Cup for Qatar feels like achieving my dream,” he says. He pauses. “It’s a special moment for each one of us.”
Thirty years ago, Jamshid chose his university over a national football camp. He never played for India. He never played at any international tournament. But he moved to a new country, raised his children there, spent his Fridays teaching his young son how to dribble near a dug-out, and now that son is going to the FIFA World Cup.
On June 13, in San Francisco, Tahsin Mohammad Jamshid will step onto a World Cup pitch and his proud father will be watching.
