Subrata Bhattacharya

Calcutta: Subrata Bhattacharya’s allegiance will finally shift from the maroon-and-green to the red-and-gold.

A Mohun Bagan loyalist in his playing days and one who coached his favourite club successfully as well, Bhattacharya was on Monday chosen to succeed Carlos Roberto Pereira as East Bengal coach.

The decision was taken at a closed-door meeting which lasted nearly four hours.

“He is a heavyweight coach and the best man to handle our team next season,” said an East Bengal official.

Bhattacharya will get an assistant, expected to be named a few days later.

Bhattacharya declined a comment, saying that he hadn’t been intimated anything yet.

“I have not received a call from any East Bengal official. Let them get in touch with me, then I’ll talk to you,” Bhattacharya said.

Bhattacharya, who was a rock-solid central defender, played for Howrah Union and BNR before moving to Mohun Bagan in 1974. He was a permanent fixture there till the day he mothballed his boots, in 1991.

Most of his coaching career was with Mohun Bagan. The most memorable of his three spells was from 1999-2000 to 2002-03, when he guided Mohun Bagan to two National League titles and one runner-up finish.

Bhattacharya was a late surprise choice for the East Bengal job. The idea was to replace Brazilian Pereira with another foreigner, though Subhas Bhowmick had also come into the frame strongly.

It was learnt that Bhowmick, under whose guidance East Bengal won several big tournaments, lost out be- cause he isn’t a professional coach.

That will be a problem once the Professional League kicks off, as the AIFF has made it mandatory for all top sides to have coaches with a coaching licence.

Bhattacharya does have one.

The other names discussed at Monday’s meeting were P. Chathuni, Gautam Sarkar and Prasanta Banerjee.