Jeje Lalpekhlua is an Indian footballer who currently plays for Dempo in the I-League.

He scored the only goal in a win against Afghanistan in the SAFF Cup group stage match in Bangladesh. He led the Indian U19 team to South Asian games in Sri Lanka. In the last group stage match he scored a hat trick against Pakistan in a 5-1 win. He also scored four goals in his first three senior appearances for the Indian national football team. He was also an important player in India's 2011 SAFF Cupchampionship victory. Jeje is Christian by faith.

Born in the small village of Hnahthial in Mizoram, it would not be wrong to say that Jeje inherited football genes from his family. His father and elder brother played for a local Mizo club – The Model Sporting Club while his uncle represented Mizoram in Santosh Trophy. Jeje made his debut for the Model Sporting Club four months after his dad retired from the club.

Despite facing initial hesitation from his parents for playing football, Jeje came to light after a spectacular performance at the Wai Wai Cup held in Mizoram. On account of his strong performance Jeje made it to the Mizoram U-19 team and then, as the popular cliche goes, he never looked back. Jeje impressed youth coach Colm Toal at the U-19 selection camp in Gwalior and got selecteded for U-19 qualifiers. Jeje was then spotted by the Pune F.C. scouts and he signed for the Red Lizards at the tender age of 16. Jeje then went on to captain the India U-19 team in the South Asian Games.^[2]

From 2007-2010 Lalpekhlua played for Pune F.C. of the I-League. It is only known that he had played nineteen games and scored five goals.^[3]

For the 2010-11 I-League season, Lalpekhlua signed for I-League newcomers Indian Arrows on a one year loan basis.^[4] The Indian Arrows is only made up of Indian Under-19 players.^[5] During the2010 Federation Cup he scored 1 goal for Indian Arrows in two games played.^[6] On December 3, 2010 Lalpekhlua took part in Indian Arrows first I-League game ever against Chirag United, the final score was 2-1 in Chirag United's favor.^[7] On December 8, 2010 Lalpekhlua scored his first ever goal for Indian Arrows against ONGC FC.^[8] After that Lalpekhlua went on a huge scoring run and earned a lot of praise by many top AIFF personnel. On March 13, 2011 Lalpekhlua scored four goals against FC Air India in an I-League match which ended 5-2 in favor of Indian Arrows.^[9] He was then also declared man of the match in his club's 4-0 win over HAL on April 3, 2011.^[10]

On July 7, 2011 it was announced that Jeje has signed for his former club Pune F.C. in the I-League.^[11]

Jeje made his first start (and his first overall game) for Pune since his return from Indian Arrows on September 17, 2011 during the Federation Cup group stage against fellow I-League oppositionDempo. During the match Jeje scored his first goal in over a year for Pune en route to a 2-1 victory.^[12] Jeje then scored his second goal of the Federation Cup on September 19, 2011 againstKingfisher East Bengal F.C. at the Salt Lake Stadium.^[13] He then on September 26, 2011 won the FPAI Best Young Player Award for the 2010-11 season beating out players like Raju Gaikwadand Lenny Rodrigues.^[14] After winning the FPAI Best Young Player Award Jeje started the 2011–12 I-League season in the starting line-up for Pune. In the second game of the season for Pune he scored the first goal in a comeback from behind night for the club in the 78th minute to make the score 1-2 against Sporting Clube de Goa in a match which ended 2-2 on October 28, 2011.^[15] The next game Jeje continued scoring as he scored once again against Chirag United Club Kerala in what was Pune's first win of the 2011-12 I-League season 3-1 on November 1, 2011.^[16] He then scored another goal in the I-League against Dempo in the 26th minute on November 19, 2011. Despite the goal Pune still lost the match 3-1.^[17]

On 15 June 2013, Jeje signed for Dempo SC on a two year contract.^[18] Lalpekhlua made his debut for Dempo in the I-League on 22 September 2013 against Shillong Lajong at the Duler Stadium; in which he came on as a substitute for Mandar Rao Desai in the 55th minute; as Dempo lost the match 0–3.^[19] He scored his 2nd goal of the season on 9 October against Salgaocar SC at theDuler Stadium on the 81st minute,the game eventually finished 1-1.

On February 23, 2011 Lalpekhlua played his first game and scored his first goal for the Indian U-23 team in the 2-1 victory over the Myanmar U-23 team.^[20] On March 21, 2011, Lalpekhlua made his debut for the senior India national football team in the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualification against Chinese Taipei and scored a goal.^[21] On March 23, 2011 Jeje scored 2 more goals in his second match for the Indian national football team against Pakistan in another AFC Challenge Cup Qualification match.^[22]On March 25 he scored 4th goal of his international career against Turkmenistan which helped India tie the match.^[23] During India's second leg of the 2014 World Cupqualifiers against the United Arab Emirates on July 28, 2011 Jeje scored a goal to help India to a 2-2 draw at the Ambedkar Stadium in New Delhi, India but India still were knocked-out 5-2 on aggregate after losing the away leg 3-0.^[24] Then on November 16, 2011 Jeje scored in the 47th minute for India against Malaysia in a Friendly played at the Salt Lake Stadium. The match ended 3-2 in favour of India.^[25] After impressing in a trial with Rangers of Scotland, Jeje participated in his first competitive tournament, the SAFF Cup and started the first match of the tournament against Afghanistan on 3 December 2011.^[26] He then scored his first goal of the tournament on the 7 December 2011 against Sri Lanka.^[27] Then he followed it up by scoring his second goal of the tournament in the Final as India managed to beat Afghanistan 4-0 at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi on 11 December 2011.^[28] He played sensational game against Lebanon U22 and scored brace in that match, he came up in 65min from the bench.