Surojit Sengupta :: The Last Of The Exponent Of " EXQUISITE " Winger Of Indian Football - R . I . P CAPTAINDA

Pic - :: Surojit Sengupta In East Bengal Colours. 

So at last, it happened and proved to be that everything one day has to end and it has ended with Surojit Sengupta, the last of the  exponent of the EXQUISITE quality of the winger in Indian Football departed to an destination unknown. The  day which was so sad for us to hear this news was on February 17th 2022 .

This was the jersey number of Ashok Kumar who scored that winning goal for India on March 15th 1975, which gave India her FIRST WORLD CUP Hockey title , the only so far, whereas Surojit Sengupta always donned the jersey number 15 for whatever club he played. 

Pic - The Track Record Of Surojit Sengupta . He really was an East Bengalian , by BIRTH and as a  PLAYER 

For Hockey, Ashok Kumar and then later Mohammed Shahid were the " ART " , for cricket it was Gundappa Vishvanath, but for football , definitely it was Surojit Sengupta. His LEGS spoke all about it when he use to be on the run with the ball and Oh!!, what a delite and delight it would be when one saw his aristocratic and delightful runs. . 

Known as Captainda by many in the  circle of Indian football, SURO, as fondly referred by those like Achyut Banerjee, and Bagha Shome,  the two wily coach that unearthed so many footballers in the circle of maidan, and Kolkatta football, and Captainda, by many in the fraternity of Indian Football, Surojit Sengupta at last fell to the vicious kill of the Covid-19 and bid goodbye to this world.

 He made his mark for the Kidderpore team way back in the 70’s and played for them from 1970 to 1972. His footballing skill then was horned by Achyut Banerjee when he took Captainda , under his wing and taught him  not only the finer concept of the game but the skill that a winger in the right should possess. The shape took place in terms of the classical dribbling's that he would do and what was more the speed  attached with it’s alacrity attached to it that one would see. His total artistry was based on the very HARD practice in which he would simply put everything sparing no effort to precise those arts of football and his BACK VOLLEYS-AIRBORNE was something very spectacular and he put years and years of practice for measuring it in terms of accuracy.  SUCH WAS HIS DEVOTION TO THE GAME.

Pic-:: With Nobody At The East Bengal Ground, Surojit Sengupta Is Seen Practicing The Airborne Back Volley.That Was His Devotion To The Game 

The ball control that he practiced with that kind of a speed coupled with his dodges and dribbling's were there  for all to see, but what was surprising was that playing three to four passes with his peers in the side he could reach the striking circle at the  very position  from where the ball could be placed at the goal. More than him scoring goals he would feed the juicy passes to his striker to score, and score and the classical examples of that had been strikers like Mohammed Akbar, Subash Bhowmik ( whenever he played as a striker ), Mihir Bose, to name a few and NOT to forget Shabbir Ali or Debashish Roy  .

His style of football attracted the Mohun Bagan authorities and he was in Mohun Bagan from 1972 to 1974 for three season .Unfortunately during those era and that period East Bengal courtesy Mohammed Habib was absolutely at the ninth sky when it boiled to Indian football. Inspite of playing beautiful soccer, he was not always fielded by Mohun Bagan in every matches that they played. Also Mohun Bagan was continuously losing to East Bengal everywhere here in India.

His style of the game and the cutting edge that he possessed, fell into the watchful eye of the East Bengal management where P.K.Banerjee , then the Coach of the East Bengal team , simply opted for him in the team in the 1974 season of Indian football. He was at East Bengal, his FAVOURITE side in 1974 and from there started the aura of east Bengal which was simply hard to believe and simply  a disaster for the opponent teams that faced him.

East Bengal from 1970 to 1975 for five long years kept on hitting and nailing , the teams from abroad and they kept on winning one trophy after other. The track record of East Bengal not losing to any foreign teams those were even better than the Indian National football team, is written as an EPOCH, in Indian as well as in Bengal football, and from 1974 when he started playing for East Bengal football club, he completely would tear the opponents in the flanks and the wings by his unbelievable speed, ball control, touch, and the passes . He was the fulcrum of the East Bengal attack during those period.

Captainda as a player-:

 Surojit Sengupta, was a DIAMOND which was cut and polished to IMBRITY and from there to Im-celebrity

He came as a very promising lad in the maidan of Kolkatta, as a footballer. However he was not shaped properly to understand the nuances of the game and the contribution that a winger of his caliber could do in a game. He was specially trained to horne his skill under the watchful eye of Achyut Banerjee who is considered to be the EYE which could see the DIAMONDS of football, cut it and then shape it for the AUSTERITY and the GLITS , that a Diamond could possess . .

Pic - :: A Wall That Explains  The Imbrity To Im- celebrity And That was Surojit Sengupta 

Mr Achyut Banerjee took him under his wing to   take him to the topmost level of football,   and the  tutelage started from there. He made his slim body very HARD-BOILED  like a hard boiled chocolate, from within and inside. His speed was worked upon which later proved his FORTE. Last but not the least his dribbling skills were reshaped in an manner where he could beat a wall of five to six defenders standing within a range of say two square feet from his body with elan. Such was the control.

His right footed swerving shots were worked upon by Achyut Banerjee which was simply a treat to watch when he swerved those ranger from the longs or the short and his left footed shots which was the weakest was worked  upon which later on became somewhat ok though not very good.

The manner in which he would run with the ball, playing three to four passes from the place of his deep defense to getting into the box to the striking circle was simply a magnet that attracted no comparism,  to compares. He was simply a marvel at the forward line of East Bengal in the wings and that was simple and simply, an EXIQUISITE.

Those three GOALS Of Surojit Sengupta-::

Amongst the number of goals that he scored for Kidderrpore, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and India, there would be THREE goals that would always be spoken about in length that Surojit Sengupta had scored.

Pic - :: Surojit Sengupta( Jersey Number 15 )  In One Of His Exquisite moment , waiting For Dilip Kumar To Exchange The Pleasantry Before The Rovers Cup Finals In 1980. 

The first was the goal that he scored against the Punjab team in the national football. The first meeting of Bengal with Punjab in that finals , in, 1978 ended goaless with Bengal just saved from being clouted away for nothing or for their life, as that could be. That meering in the finals  of Santosh trophy had ended with Bengal somehow saving their teeth. A spectacular goal save by Manoranjan Bhattacharjee helped Bengal to save thir skin and the life.

In the second meeting for the title,  immediately the next say, Surojit Sengupta went to Achyut Banerjee to seek his blessing.Mr Banerjee simply told him – IF YOU CAN RUN THE WAY I TAUGHT YOU, THIS PUNJAB TEAM WOULD BE BLOWN AWAY.

In the second meeting in the finals, he was as if running to win an Olympic Gold Medal in the 100 meters.  Bengal were two up by the strikes from Mohammed Akbar and Bidesh Bose and Surojit had to do the most with those two goals.But his moment of GLORY came in the next when he received a pass from Manoranjan Bhattacharjee, in the Bengal’s deep defense and flying like a kite and soaring like an eagle, he played just three passes with Shabbir, and Prasun Banerjee to enter their striking zone. He next beat two defenders by attractive dodges with the inside and the outside, of his boot ,  and penetrated the Punjab goal by sending their goalkeeper Surjit Singh the wrong way to place that ball in. After that he leapt high to catch the bar and did his push up to show how happy he was to nail Punjab with that goal.

Pic-: With His Blistering Run, Beating The Mohun Bagan Goalkeeper Jagadish Ghosh To Score For East Bengal In Their 3-0 Victory In Durand Cup Finals In 1978. 

After conceding the second goal in that match, Punjab with Inder Singh leading all the way completely had squeezed Bengal but that goal from Surojitda completely changed the complexion in Bengal’s favour, with that brilliant goal which has become a FOLKLORE of Indian football when one talks about those kind of a goal .

His next one was against Kuwait National team in the 1978 Asian Games at Bangkok. Kuwait completely played like a cat plays against the rats and they pumped in SIX goals against India. If not Bhaskar Ganguly and his acts under the bar it would have been 12-0 by then.

In one scene thereafter, he received a ball from Pushpa Kumar , played two passes with Prasun Banerjee and Pushpa Kumar and with that speed which completely took the Kuwaiti’s by mirage and stuns he perplexed all and one. . Same again after entering the striking zone, he used his body swerve and the inside-outside dribbling to send their goalkeeper in the wrong end to finally salvage a respect for India , though India were licked by 1-6 in that match.

It is said that keep your heads up- as the God sends his hardest exams to his most favourite soldier, to keep his hope alive. So has has to believe in himself always to pass the test.

That test came to him again in the semis of the I.F.A Shield in 1979. Playing the Bank Of Seoul team, which again was the WORLD CUP SOUTH KOREAM TEAM that had come to India to play practice cum training matches, in the I.F.A Shield matches for getting them ready for the World Cup qualifiers, they were in for a rude shock when they played East Bengal.

A day before the match, he went to his GURUJI, Achyut  Banerjee to seek his blessing. Mr Banerjee was busy training the coots there imparting his lessons to them. Seeing Surojit there he ordered him to change his gear quickly and get on to the field with the coots. He ordered him to take kicks after kicks from the  place where the flags are inserted on the field , ie , of the corner position where the flags are fixed on the ground.

Two hours of practice and the only one was to keep on kicking the ball from the position of the flag to the goal. The next was the match against that Seoul team. East Bengal were down by 0-1 and it was the 89^th minute of the game.

He collected a loose ball at the wing near the East Bengal defence, and started his dart .The Koreans fell like a nine pin when he started cutting them with his dribbles and the dodges there at the wing. He took the ball just some six inches from the flag.

Shabbir Ali and Debraj placed themselves at the box. Everybody were hoping that he would send in a curling floater to Shabbir to head that. He instead , with his outside step, send in a dipping curl,  as shot , which travelled straight a bit, swung a bit in and all of a sudden, changed it’s trajectory to swing out and that completely foxed the entire team of east Bengal as well as that Seoul Bank team. The BALL ZOOMED INTO THE NET to send the match into a 30 minutes of  extra time and from there to send East Bengal to the finals after Bhaskar Ganguly effected two brilliant penalty saves of the Koreans.

Surojitda was the " TRUMP CARD "  Of Every Team's Win In Indian football-:: 

He, infact was the trump card and the COG-OF-THE-WHEEL when it came to the team he was or he would represent and the coaches formulated the theories for their's team win, on his game play. He would change the course and the complexion of the game , say, in two to three runs and about three to five flaoters which would be enough to destruct, damage and deteriorate the standing quality of the opponent.  

Pic - :: Surojit Sengupta using the inside heel of  the back part of his left toe to initiate a goal bound move. flummoxing a deep defender so easily,  these kind of very high  degree of skill in Indian Football has completely vanished and not seen anymore in Indian football

There are many an instances, be it the club football, be it for India, or be it any international matches that he played for India. His all of a sudden burst and his constant runs from the flanks has caused many a teams against whom he played to fall like a nine pin. He was a factor of DREAD AND DEATH to his opponent. 

 His Exodus And His last In Kolkatta Football-:

Shyamal Ghosh was the skipper of the East Bengal team in 1979. East Benal had lost in the football matches in League, Shield, as well as in the Darjeeling Gold Cup to B.S.F by 3-0. This send such a strong ill-feelings that the management decided not to field the team in the Rovers, Durand and D.C.M. This did not go well with the players. They revolted and headed by Surojida, a chunk of all the BEST of the East Bengal players deserted East Bengal in 1980 and they all joined Mohammedan Sporting .That was the last in 1979 that Surojit Sengupta who had captained East Bengal in 1978 played for East Bengal.

After the 1980 with Mohammedan Sporting , finishing his  season he went to Mohun Bagan and played from them till the start of 1984 and from there on , he retired from Indian football.

Surojitda rejected an offer from Kazma Of Kuwait To Play From Them-:: 

After looking into  that goal, in the Asian Games in 1978,  and after the Indian team visited Kuwait in 1978-79 to play some matches over there, watching Surojitda playing that kind of a game against the top bracket of refined quality teams of Kuwait, he was offered a contract to play for the Kuwait Champion team " KAZMA " for U.S Dollar 30,000=00 per season , but he refused to accept that offer and preferred to play in India. 

He was the FIRST in the middle era of Indian football to have received that kind of an offer. 

Injury Curtailed His Career - ::

A torn ligament, that he had to bear the brunt of the same, saw him in and out of football from the season of 1981 to 1984. It was that as a reason that he was not selected to represent India in the  1982 Asian Games that was held at New Delhi where India made it to the quarters of that game.

 THAT WAS THE LAST WHEN THE INDIAN TEAM COULD MAKE IT TO THE LAST EIGHT IN THE ASIAN GAMES FOOTBALL.

Had Suorjitda being fit by 100% and had Debashish Roy who had his leg fractured, fit by 100%, both would have straight walked into the Indian team and if both had played for India, BET- India would have walked away with a BRONZE.

It was a national disaster, that of a kind with the two best Indian footballers sidelined due to injury and that really cost us the medal which would have been the LAST by India in International football if they would have played for india then.

Surojitda as a media personality-::

He took a V.R.S from his employer, the State Bank Of India, and he joined the “ AAJKAL ” group as the media personnel to cover football.

This was a job he did till he could do before he breathed his last.

He was the one who spotted Baichung Bhutia at Gangtok in 1992 and brought him to East Bengal and the rest is a history.

Excellent Student Of Science-:: 

He passed his B.Sc degree from the university of Calcutta, then, scoring over 75% of marks. To become a footballer he gave away studying METEA PHYSICS and MOLECULAR PHYSICS, the course that his parents wanted him to do. His dedication toward the game made him a very popular footballer and that was how he neutralised by sacrificing his studies. He was employed with the State Bank Of India. 

His Help To Me-::

I spoke to him exactly a year ago to enquire about Debashish Roy on whom I was to write an article and through Mihir Bose and Bhaskar Ganguly, he got me the phone number of Debashish Roy with whom I spoke before writing an article on him  , ie , on Debashish Roy in this blog page here during September 2019 . .

With a HEAVY HEART that I wish to say- WE WILL MISS YOU CAPTAINDA

REST IN PEACE THE LAST OF THE EXQUISITE EXPONENT OF THE WING FOOTBALL OF INDIA.

 That is it 

Regards and Thanks

Pics

Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

Mr Shyamal Bhattacharjee, the author was born at West Chirimiri Colliery at District Surguja, Chattisgarh on July 6th 1959 He received his early education at Carmel Convent School Bishrampur and later at Christ Church Boys' Higher Secondary School at Jabalpur. He later joined Hislop College at Nagpur and completed his graduation in Science and he also added a degree in  B A thereafter. He joined the HITAVADA, a leading dailies of Central India at Nagpur as a      Sub-Editor ( Sports ) but gave up to complete his MBA in 1984 He thereafter added a Diploma In Export Management. He has authored THREE books namely Notable Quotes and Noble Thought published by Pustak Mahal in 2001 Indian Cricket : Faces That Changed It  published by Manas Publications in 2009 and Essential Of Office Management published by NBCA, Kolkatta  in 2012. He has a experience of about 35 years in Marketing .

Signature Of Shyamal Bhattacharjee 

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