IA Block hosted a football adda on Ashtami starring former India international player Prasanta Banerjee, who is distinguished for being one of the few players to have captained and won trophies in all three big clubs — East Bengal, Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting. He had East Bengal great, Samaresh Chowdhury for company.
The players shared interesting anecdotes from their career. Chowdhury reminisced the iconic 1975 IFA Shield final when his team took down arch-rival Mohun Bagan with a decisive 5-0 scoreline. How did they do it? As per Chowdhury, it was because the Mohun Bagan players were suffering from fatigue even before stepping on the field.
The players spoke of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in the Indian top-tier league, the Indian Super League (ISL), the differences in Indian football now compared to their active years etc.
As the discussion was opened to questions from the audience, the development of football in India, especially Bengal, came up. Banerjee shared his disappointment with the crowd. “The academy system in Bengal is not up to the mark. We hardly have two to three proper academies, which is not enough. I used to urge the academy authorities to create funds for their smooth running, as without proper finances they would close down. They could utilise the interest from the funds to improve the facilities too. I even agreed to help them with the layout but unfortunately, the condition hasn’t improved,” he said.
“Once, for a school-level tournament, I went to book the NKDA football stadium in New Town but I was bombarded with irrelevant questions,” said Banerjee. “The person in charge asked me who I was, and what my intentions were, to which I replied that I want betterment of Bengal football. He further asked me whose permission I had taken to come and book the stadium and how we would organise it. He even demanded that we share 25 per cent of what we earn from it with them, which is completely unethical! We are already paying to book the ground. Why would he ask for more?”
To conclude the talk show, the audience wanted to hear who they felt were the best players from their time. Banerjee was full of praise for Krishanu Dey and Jose Barreto. “Krishanu played beautiful football and his speed was comparable to the foreigners but he had very low endurance. I remember in the Merdeka Cup, against Malaysia, he scored a banger from 22 yards after some beautiful footwork. Years have passed since his playing days but he was the Maradona of Bengal. Had he developed better endurance and became capable of playing beyond 45 minutes, he could have been a star in any country. Since the 70s, Krishanu is the best Indian player I have ever seen,” he said.
Among the foreigners, Banerjee felt Barreto was the most consistent and effective player. “He could score and create goals in numbers which made him better than the rest,” he said.
Kaushik Ghosh, treasurer of, IA Block Resident’s Forum, was happy with the success of the event. “Last year we had organised a similar event and hosted a jatra and film director, Suman Mukhopadhyay. We received great response from the crowd and they expressed their desire to witness more such events, particularly related to football we have passionate fans of East Bengal and Mohun Bagan in our block,” he said.
