Sushil Bhattacharya

Sushil Bhattacharya (1924 – 18 July 2015) was an Indian professional football player and coach,^[1] who is credited for becoming the first manager of the India women's national football team.^[2][3][4] He was also the first head coach in history of East Bengal Club.^[5][6]

Sushil Bhattacharya

Personal information
Date of birth	1924
Place of birth	Bagdogra, Bengal Presidency, British India
Date of death	18 July 2015 (aged 90)
Place of death	Kolkata, India
Position(s)	Winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
	Town Club
	Vidyasagar College
	Sporting Union
1945–1949	East Bengal
1950–1956	Eastern Railway
1951	→ East Bengal (loan)
Managerial career
	Eastern Railway
1961–1962	East Bengal
1971–1972	Tollygunge Agragami
1975	India women
1975–1977	Bengal
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Playing career

Born in Bagdogra, Bhattacharya used to play both cricket and hockey beside football.^[7] He began his playing career with Town Club in Berhampur, representing the team in IFA Shield.^[8] He then appeared with Vidyasagar College and Sporting Union, before signing with East Bengal in 1945.^[8] With East Bengal, he achieved the double in 1945 by winning both the Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield.^[9][10] His consistent performances on both flanks in a 3–2–5 formation helped the team achieving success and earned him a national team callup in 1946. He spent four seasons for the "red and gold brigade", played until 1949, refusing Gostha Pal and Abhilash Ghosh's offers of joining Mohun Bagan.^[8]

When I used to play for East Bengal, names like Apparao, Venkatesh, Dhanraj, Somana and Sunil Ghosh were part of the forward line. Later, Ahmed Khan and Abid joined us. There used to be five forwards and I could play in the position of both right-in and left-in.

— Bhattacharya on his playing days in East Bengal.^[7]

Bhattacharya moved to Eastern Railway in 1949, returning briefly to East Bengal on loan in 1951, for the Durand Cup.^[8] At the tournament, they defeated Rajasthan Club 2–1 in final and lifted their first ever Durand Cup. He also appeared with George Telegraph in Calcutta Football League.^[11][12]

Coaching career

After retiring as a player, Bhattacharya began his coaching career with Eastern Railway, as an assistant coach.^[8][13] He was deputy of Bagha Shome at the club, which was then consisting players like P. K. Banerjee,^[14][15][16] Pradyut Barman,^[17] Prashanta Sinha,^[18] Nikhil Nandy, Pakhi Sen and others.^[19] He later became the first-ever permanent "head coach" coach of East Bengal.^[8][20] He won the IFA Shield and Calcutta League with East Bengal in 1961.^[21][22]

Bhattacharya also managed Tollygunge Agragami and helped the team gaining promotion to the CFL first division.^[8] He also helped Tollygunge reaching the IFA Shield final in 1971,^[8] in which they went down 2–0 to Mohammedan Sporting.^[23][24] He then took charge of different age group teams of Bengal alongside the Narendrapur Ramkrishna Mission College football team and Kolkata Veterans Club.^[25] During his tenure as coach, he managed players like Tulsidas Balaram, Subhash Bhowmick, Bhaskar Ganguli, Sukumar Samajpati and Krishanu Dey.

In 1975, an advertisement appeared in the local newspapers that notified that a women’s team will be formed to represent Bengal. 150 girls like us had no idea about how the things work in professional football. Sushil Bhattacharya selected 16 girls that day. Apart from me, Shanti Mullick, Minati Roy, Shukla Dutta and Judy D’Silva were among the few who made the cut. The trial was held at the Kalighat ground. He was more like a father to us. Most of his students have served the nation for a long time. The biggest quality of his was not to get involved in any controversy ever. Also coaches often get criticized for their actions, but this was rarely the case for Sushil Da, such was the respect for the man. It was great to see the whole Kolkata football fraternity getting united to pay him the last homage. As a man who loved to keep himself away from fanfare, he never got his due recognition. We, be it the male or the female footballers, have been lucky to get him as a guide. As Sanjoy was telling today, we have to carry forward his legacy to develop Indian football further.

— Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar, Indian international, sharing her memories with Goal.com, after Bhattacharya's passing away in 2015.^[8]

In 1975, he came the first-ever manager of the Bengal women's team, and the first-ever manager of the newly formed India women's national football team.^[8][21][26] He is credited for nurturing Indian women talents like Shanti Mullick,^[27] the first ever Padma Shri awardee. Bhattacharya managed Indian women's team when, from 1975 to 1991, the administration was in hands of the Women's Football Federation of India (WFFI) and the Asian Ladies' Football Confederation (ALFC).^[28]

He was in charge of India S at the 1980 AFC Women's Championship in Calicut, in which they achieved second finish.^[29] In the next edition, at the 1981 AFC Women's Championship, India secured third place, and again finished as runners-up at the 1983.^[8] He also guided Bengal in Junior, Sub-Junior, Senior Women's National Football Championship and National Games, achieving nationwide success.^[11] In 1985, he was appointed head coach of a noted football coaching academy incorporated jointly by Russa United Club and Tollygunge Agragami.^[30] He retired from coaching in 2008.^[31]

Death

Bhattacharya died of cancer at his home in Tollygunge, Kolkata, on 18 July 2015, aged 90.^[11]

Honours

Player

East Bengal^[32]

• Calcutta Football League: 1945
• IFA Shield: 1945

Eastern Railway

• Rovers Cup runner-up: 1950^[8]

Manager

East Bengal^[7]

• Calcutta Football League: 1961
• IFA Shield: 1961
• Dr. H. K. Mookherjee Shield: 1961
• Rovers Cup: 1962

Tollygunge Agragami

• IFA Shield runner-up: 1971^[8]

India (women's)^[8]

• AFC Women's Championship runner-up: 1980, 1983

Individual

• The Telegraph Hall of Fame: 2012^[7]

See also

•  India portal
•  Biography portal
•  Association football portal

• List of East Bengal Club coaches
• Women's football in India

References

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2. . Live mint. 28 July 2017. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
3. Chaudhuri, Arunava. . indien-netzwerk.de. Archived from the original on 5 April 2005. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
4. Taylor & Francis: Soccer and Society (2005). The gendered kick: Women's soccer in twentieth century India, Soccer & Society, 6:2–3, 270–284, DOI: 10.1080/14660970500106469.
5. Sportstar, Team (1 August 2020). . Sportstar. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
6. The World Sports Today (1 August 2020). . The World Sports Today. Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 29 June 2021.
7. Basu, Rith (9 September 2012). . telegraphindia.com. Kokata: The Telegraph. Archived from the original on 6 July 2021. Retrieved 15 September 2017.
8. Mitra, Atanu (19 July 2015). . www.goal.com. Kolkata: Goal. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
9. . eastbengalfootballclub.com. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 18 June 2020.
10. . East Bengal Football Club. Archived from the original on 29 March 2012. Retrieved 10 August 2012.
11. [First coach of East Bengal passed away]. www.anandabazar.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: Anandabazar Patrika. 19 July 2015. Archived from the original on 16 August 2022. Retrieved 10 October 2022.
12. [District oriented George Telegraph Sports Club to pick up footballers]. insidesports.in (in Bengali). Kolkata: Inside Sports Bengali. 18 July 2021. Archived from the original on 22 October 2022. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
13. Chakraborty, Debojyoti (29 August 2017). . www.goaldentimes.org. Goalden Times. Archived from the original on 11 November 2021. Retrieved 25 October 2022.
14. . India Today. 20 March 2020. Archived from the original on 22 November 2020. Retrieved 24 March 2020.
15. . www.iloveindia.com. Archived from the original on 31 July 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
16. . www.indianfootball.de. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2016.
17. Das, G. C. (14 September 2008). . www.kolkatafootball.com. Kolkata Football. Archived from the original on 14 September 2008. Retrieved 25 January 2011.
18. Roy, Gautam; Ball, Swapan (2007). . www.eastbengalfootballclub.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
19. Karmakar, Rajat (21 December 2013). [Eastern Railway Football Club — History and heritage of a 141-year-old club]. archives.anandabazar.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: Anandabazar Patrika. Archived from the original on 27 January 2022. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
20. Kapadia, Novy (14 September 2017). . Scroll. Archived from the original on 10 September 2021. Retrieved 10 September 2021.
21. Chaudhuri, Arunava (21 July 2015). . sportskeeda.com. Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 22 July 2015.
22. . twitter.com (@eastbengal_fc). East Bengal Football Club. 18 July 2023. Archived from the original on 18 July 2023. Retrieved 18 July 2023.
23. Chaudhuri, Arunava (1998). . indianfootball.de. Indian Football Network. Archived from the original on 7 October 2021. Retrieved 20 February 2021.
24. Chakrabarty, Kushal (12 July 2012). . kolkatafootball.com. Kolkata Football. Archived from the original on 9 July 2021. Retrieved 1 July 2021.
25. Das, Debasmita (14 May 2019). [East Bengal's first professional coach, this is another documentary in reality!]. bengali.indianexpress.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: The Indian Express. Archived from the original on 29 September 2020. Retrieved 9 October 2022.
26. Doyle, Jennifer (28 January 2010). . NY Times. India. Archived from the original on 21 February 2017. Retrieved 7 November 2012.
27. . Goal.com. 14 June 2020. Archived from the original on 19 July 2022. Retrieved 19 July 2022.
28. Vadukut, Sidin (28 July 2017). . www.livemint.com. Live mint. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 8 August 2018.
29. Media Team, AIFF (15 August 2022). . www.the-aiff.com. New Delhi: All India Football Federation. Archived from the original on 21 September 2022. Retrieved 20 October 2022.
30. Bhowmick, Mithun (15 December 2018). [Diseases of Indian football: Episode – 2]. bengali.indianexpress.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: IE Bangla Sports Desk. Indian Express News Service. Archived from the original on 15 November 2023. Retrieved 31 January 2019.
31. . india.com. Kolkata: Indo-Asian News Service. 18 July 2015. Archived from the original on 1 October 2015. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
32. . eastbengalclubrecords.wordpress.com. East Bengal Club. 24 November 2014. Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 9 October 2022.

Further reading

Bibliography

• Kapadia, Novy (2017). Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-42641-7.
• Martinez, Dolores; Mukharjiim, Projit B (2009). . Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-88353-6. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
• Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2008). . Shodhganga. University of Calcutta. p. 35. hdl:10603/174532. Archived from the original on 7 October 2022. Retrieved 7 October 2022.
• Nath, Nirmal (2011). . Readers Service. ISBN 9788187891963. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
• Dineo, Paul; Mills, James (2001). . London, United Kingdom: Frank Cass Publishers. ISBN 978-0-7146-8170-2. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022.
• (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 13 August 2012. Retrieved 20 October 2011.
• Majumdar, Boria; Bandyopadhyay, Kausik (2006). . Routledge. ISBN 9780415348355. Archived from the original on 29 June 2021.
• Basu, Jaydeep (2003). . UBS Publishers' Distributors. ISBN 9788174764546. Archived from the original on 11 October 2022.
• Roy, Gautam (1 January 2021). East Bengal 100. Allsport Foundation. ISBN 978-8194763109.
• Bandyopadhyay, Santipriya (1979). Cluber Naam East Bengal (in Bengali). Kolkata: New Bengal Press.
• Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (2017). Mohun Bagan–East Bengal (in Bengali). Kolkata: Parul Prakashan.
• D'Mello, Anthony (1959). Portrait Of Indian Sport. P R Macmillan Limited, London.

Further reading

• Roy Chowdhury, Rohan (27 July 2023). [East Bengal will play the first match at their own ground today, Mashal Brigade is desperate to return the win]. bengali.news18.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: News18 Bangla. Archived from the original on 27 July 2023. Retrieved 27 July 2023.
• Dutta, Prasenjit (22 May 2022). [The Third Eye of Kolkata Maidan]. prohor.in (in Bengali). Kolkata: Prohor News. Archived from the original on 5 February 2023. Retrieved 21 October 2022.
• . ifawb.org. Kolkata: Indian Football Association. 2021. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 31 October 2023.
• Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (13 September 2019). [A tough fight like 1958 is also being witnessed in this season's league]. abandabazar.com (in Bengali). Kolkata: Anandabazar Patrika. Archived from the original on 26 September 2022.