Jarnail Singh was born on1936 in Panam, Hoshiarpur, Punjab and he is regarded as one of the most outstanding defenders of India. Like many of his illustrious compatriots, Jarnail played a pivotal role in shaping India`s football fortunes during the golden era of Indian football. His heroics in the 1962 Jakarta Asian Games are part of Indian football folklore now. Braving a nasty head-injury that required six stitches, Jarnail, in his new role as a forward, scored crucial goals in the semi-final and final to fetch India its maiden Asiad football gold.

Two years later, when India became the runner-up in the 1964 Asia Cup at Tel Aviv, Jarnail was at his best marshalling the defence with authority and guile. After another commendable show at the Merdeka tournament in Malaysia in the same year, Jarnail took over the reins of the team from Chuni Goswami and continued for more than two seasons with a fair bit of success. At the domestic circuit, Jarnail was associated with the Mohun Bagan Club for 10 glorious years when the green-and-maroon team swept all the major titles at the national level. After quitting from Mohun Bagan in 1969, Jarnail went to play for Punjab and inspired the team to win the first Santosh Trophy in 1970 as a coach-cum-player.