Calcutta: A group of former Maidan footballers who played the city's top division league in the 1970s flew off to Russia from Calcutta on Friday for their maiden FIFA World Cup experience.
Small savings over the years and a premature bank withdrawal have made their trip possible.
The group of four will stay in Russia for a fortnight and watch three matches featuring Brazil, Germany and Portugal in their respective group league matches.
The four - Sumit Bagchi, Tapash Ghosh, Asutosh Dutta and Parthasarathi Das - had turned out in the city's top division league matches alongside or against Maidan greats such as Majid Baskar, Bidesh Bose, Jamshid Nassiri and Shyam Thapa.
"All of us are in our late 50s and early 60s and have retired from our jobs. But seeing a World Cup is a dream that we did not want to give up on and each of us managed to arrange around Rs 2.9 lakh for the tour," said Sumit Bagchi, a "half back" who played for several clubs, including East Bengal in 1980-81.
The 57-year-old resident of Jadavpur said he had been saving for the mega event since the last World Cup in Brazil in 2014. "I started a recurring deposit of Rs 5,000 a month. So, in four years I had Rs 2.4 lakh. Add to that the interest and I was good to go," said Bagchi, who had been part of the Bengal team that won the U-19 BC Roy Trophy in 1977 and 1978.
Ghosh, a former goalkeeper, failed to raise the entire amount from his savings. "But there was absolutely no way I could have missed the trip. So, I took my family into confidence and made a premature withdrawal of Rs 1 lakh from a fixed deposit...," said the 62-year-old resident of Behala, who had played for Calcutta Gymkhana, among other teams.
Dutta had represented BNR and Das, Aryans and Customs, among other teams.
The four friends share a common love for Team Brazil and are looking forward to the June 22 match between Neymar's boys and Costa Rica at Krestovsky Stadium in St Petersburg.
The veterans
On the same flight to Moscow as the quartet were Pannalal Chatterjee, 85, a former Maidan footballer, and his wife Chaitali, who were going to watch their 10th World Cup.
Chaitali fondly remembers how Pele had graciously agreed to be clicked with them during the 1994 World Cup in the US. The legend was staying at a hotel next to theirs.
"On hearing that we were from India, he said Anandabazar Patrika was among the 30 newspapers he had been covering the World Cup for," Chaitali recounted.
The couple were felicitated jointly by the British deputy high commission and Hermes Voyages, a sport tourism company, on the eve of their departure on Thursday.
Bruce Bucknell, the British deputy high commissioner, lauded the elderly couple for the "incredible feat" of attending 10 World Cups back to back.
"The Indian soccer captain, Sunil Chhetri, has said England are the dark horses this time. I hope you see the dark horse win in Russia," he laughed addressing them.
