Mohun Bagan

Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA Shield final. This victory made Mohun Bagan the first all-Indian side to win a championship over a British side and was a major moment during India's push for independence. Although Mohun Bagan is a multi-sport club, the primary sport since its foundation had been football.

They have won the top-flight football league a record five times – the National Football League three times, and the I-League twice. They were the most successful team of India in the history of the Federation Cup, having won the championship a record 14 times. The club had also won several other trophies, including the Durand Cup (16 times), IFA Shield (22 times), Rovers Cup (14 times), and the Calcutta Football League (30 times). The club won various minor and major trophies throughout its history. The club contested the Kolkata Derby with long-time local rivals East Bengal Club with the first derby match played on 8 August 1921. The club also shared a rivalry with another local club, Mohammedan SC. On 2014 Niranjan Kakati was felicitated by the club for highest cleansheet record.
Mohun Bagan was inducted into the Club of Pioneers, a network of the oldest existing football clubs around the world, on 29 July 2019 as the club celebrated its 130th year in existence.

Mohun Bagan was inducted into the Club of Pioneers, a network of the oldest existing football clubs around the world, on 29 July 2019 as the club celebrated its 130th year in existence.

Since 2020, ATK Mohun Bagan FC succeeded the football operations of Mohun Bagan after Kolkata Games and Sports Private Limited, the company that owned ATK FC, took an 80% stake in Mohun Bagan. ATK FC as a football club dissolved on 1 June 2020 and ATK Mohun Bagan FC continues playing with the existing registration of Mohun Bagan with AIFF and IFA.

History

Formation and early years (1880s)

The foundation of Mohun Bagan AC stretches back into the 1880s when the neighborhood youth of presently known Fariapukur Lane in Shyambazar had set out in search for an ideal place to establish a football club, and came across a marble palace, ''Mohun Bagan Villa'', owned by the family of a leading jute trader, Kirti Chandra Mitra.

On 15 August 1889, after a meeting of three famous aristocratic Bengali families of North Kolkata – the Mitra family, the Basu family, and the Sen family, and other distinguished personalities, presided over by Bhupendra Nath Basu himself, ''Mohun Bagan Sporting Club'' was formed. Bhupendra Nath Basu became the first president of the newly founded club and Jyotindra Nath Basu was the first secretary of it.

During the initial years, the meager ground inside the palace was used by the club for hosting matches, including their first match that was played against the team of Eden Hindu Hostel students, and lost 1–0. The initial players to play for the club were Girin Basu, Pramatha Nath Chattopadhyay, Sachin Bandhyopadhyay, Ram Goswami, Sarat Mitra, Hem Nath Sen, Nalin Basu, Upen Ghosh, Manindra Nath Basu, Manomoham Pandey, Probhas Mitra, and the captain Manilal Sen. Priyanath Mitra, the successor of Kirti Mitra, had the club's iconic Green-Maroon jerseys stitched by a renowned European tailoring shop, Messrs Rankin at Old Couse House Street. The club management hugely emphasized providing memberships to the youth and maintained a strict code of conduct with an avowed objective of producing excellent sportsmen and imbuing them with impeccable moral and social values.

At the first-anniversary assembly, the Presidency College students and members of the club invited their professor, F. J. Rowe, to attend. Rowe pointed out the inappropriate naming of the club and suggested replacing ''"Sporting"'' with ''"Athletic"'' since the club didn't indulge in sporting activities, like angling or rifle shooting. Thus, the members agreed and renamed the club as ''Mohun Bagan Athletic Club''.

The second-anniversary assembly was presided by Sir Thomas Holland, who later became a member of the Executive Council of Governor-General of India. In 1891, with the help of the Maharaja Durga Charan Laha of Shyampukur, the club ground was relocated within his residential estate, now known as Laha Colony. The club ground was later relocated to Shyam Square in Bagbazar, with the help of the Kolkata Municipal Corporation chairman, Henry Lee. The first tournament that the club participated in was the 1893 Coochbehar Cup, where the team suffered to perform against the British Indian Army teams and the clubs like Aryan, National, Town Club, Kumurtuli, Fort William's Arsenal and the famed Sovabazar, which was founded by the ''Father of Indian football'' Nagendra Prasad Sarbadhikari himself. In 1900, Mohun Bagan became the partner of Presidency College and shared their ground at Maidan, where they would continue to play for 15 years.

Administrative and tactical overhaul under Subedar-major Sailen Basu (1900s)

The early exits from major tournaments suffered in the 1900s evoked ridicule from its local rivals, including Sovabazar. Soon after the appointment of Subedar-major Sailen Basu as the secretary, the club adopted European playing methods and players underwent rigorous physical training and followed austere fitness regime similar to what Subedar-major Basu had experienced during his service in the army. The club also began recruiting players from other clubs, especially from National, where footballers played in boots rather than barefoot. Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee was one of the notable recruitment from National, who was also the only player in the club to play in boots at that time. As a result of such incredible changes made, the club achieved its first success by winning the 1904 Coochbehar Cup.

The following year Mohun Bagan won the Coochbehar Cup once again and reached the Gladstone Cup final, held in Chinsurah, where they defeated the reigning IFA Shield champions Dalhousie 6–1, with Shibdas Bhaduri scoring four goals. Maharaja Rajendra Bhup Bahadur of Coochbehar, impressed by the team, would become a chief patron of the club. In 1906, Mohun Bagan also won the Minto Fort tournament by defeating one of the major English clubs in India, Calcutta. But they missed the chance of participating for the 1906 IFA Shield because P.K. Biswas, who had played for National but also played for Mohun Bagan in the same year, which was considered illegal by the Indian Football Association, the then ''de facto'' governing body of Indian football. Therefore Mohun Bagan was disqualified.

Apart from team building, Subedar-major Basu had a remarkable contribution in arranging a new club tent and ground after the demolition of Mohun Bagan Villa in 1891. The club did not have a permanent club tent and had an increasing number of club members through a minimal membership fee of 8 annas, half for students. During this period, a major meeting was held among the club officials, including Jyotindra Nath Basu, Subedar-major Sailen Basu, Dwijendra Nath Basu, Sir Bhupendra Nath Mitra and Dr. Girish Ghosh. The meeting was regarding the construction of a club tent at Maidan, which was financially not feasible. A few days later, a club tent within Mohun Bagan's premises in Maidan was constructed and is still in use. To date, there is no evidence of this in the financial records of the club, and the donors remain unknown. Mohun Bagan also won the Trades Cup four consecutive times between 1906 and 1909, which was the second most prestigious tournament in India after IFA Shield. Mohun Bagan won Coochbehar Cup in 1907 and 1908, and then both the Laxmibilas Cup and the Gladstone Cup in 1909 and 1910.

The historic year of 1911

In 1909 and 1910, among only a few other native clubs, the team had the honor to play in the IFA Shield for its consistent performances over the recent years. However, they would struggle to match the regiment teams of British and British Indian armies in the first two years. In 1911, Mohun Bagan formed a dominant side for the IFA Shield, which included Hiralal Mukherjee, Bhuti Sukul, Rev. Sudhir Chatterjee, Monmohun Mukherjee, Rajen Sengupta, Nil Madhav Bhattacharya, Kanu Roy, Habul Sarkar, Abhilash Ghosh, Bijoydas Bhaduri and captained by Shibdas Bhaduri. They battled out against the professionally equipped teams of St. Xavier's College, Calcutta Rangers Club, Rifle Brigade and Middlesex Regiment to reach the IFA Shield final without conceding a goal. The enthusiasm for the final on 29 July 1911 (which is now known as "Mohun Bagan Day") was such that people came from other districts of Bengal as well as from neighboring provinces of Bihar and Assam. The East Indian Railway Company ran a special train and additional steamer services were pressed into service to ferry spectators to Calcutta from the ''mofussil'' areas. Tickets for the match, originally priced at and , were sold at due to its immense demand in the country. After trailing by a goal from Sgt. Jackson of East Yorkshire Regiment team within the first 15 minutes of the 50 minutes of the match, Shibdas Bhaduri soon scored an equalizer in the first half and then set up Abhilash Ghosh to score the winner with just two minutes remaining of the match. The club became the first native team to lift the IFA Shield, that too in front of an estimated crowd of 80,000, although the referee, H.G. Pooler, estimated approximately 20,000 to be the number. Reuters in its cablegram to English newspapers mentioned: ''"For the first time in the history of Indian football an Indian team, the Mohun Bagan, consisting purely of Bengalees, has won the Indian Football Association Shield beating crack teams of English regiments. About 80,000 spectators were present on the ground, but most of them could not see the match. By noticing the flying of kites, they were following the actions of the match. And when they came to know about the win of their team, they started tearing off their shirts, waving them, tearing their hairs."'' The mood can be gauged by what Achintya Kumar Sengupta wrote in Kallol Jug: ''"Mohun Bagan is not a football team. It is a tortured country, rolling in the dust, which has just started to raise its head."'' Mohun Bagan supporters and the public at large went berserk, even supporters of Muslim representative clubs like Moslem and Mohammedan went to the streets to celebrate and the Muslims from Dharmatala joined the victory procession of Hindus near the Thanthania Kalibari. On 31 July 1911, The Englishman wrote, ''"What the Congress failed to achieve, Mohun Bagan has. In other words, they have succeeded in degrading the English."'' The performance was appreciated by Manchester Guardian saying, ''"The team the Bengalis won the IFA Shield by defeating three top military teams. 80,000 Indians will remain witnesses to this event. There is nothing to be surprised at. The team that is physically more fit, has sharp surveillance and intelligence, wins."''. On 30 July 1911, India Mirror reported, ''"The Japanese victory over the Russians did not stir the East half as much as did the match between Mohun Bagan and East York."'' After the match ended, a Brahmin, pointing to the Union Jack fluttering atop Fort William, asked Rev. Chatterjee, ''"When will that come down?"'' and according to popular legend, it was predicted that the flag would come down only when Mohun Bagan regained the shield, which would later come true.

Nation-wide exposure of the club (1912–30)

After a comparatively disappointing year in 1912, Shibdas Bhaduri handed the captaincy to Habul Sarkar the following year, but they failed to win any trophy that year. The same year Gostha Pal joined the club as a defender at the young age of 16 and continued to play for 22 years, also leading the team from 1921 to 1926, soon became known as the ''"Chinese Wall".'' In 1914, Mohun Bagan for the first time played in CFL 2nd Division and finished third with only the top non-military team be promoted to CFL 1st Division but after a team from the 1st Division withdrew, Mohun Bagan got promoted. Mohun Bagan played their first match on 15 May 1915 against Calcutta, which was drawn. Meanwhile, Subedar-major Sailen Basu had to leave for his commitments in the military service for the World War I. Dwijendra Nath Basu, nephew of Bhupendra Nath Basu and brother of Subedar-major Basu, replaced him as the club's secretary. Mohun Bagan finished fourth in their league debut, while a junior team of the club made the semi-finals of the Trades Cup and Coochbehar Cup. The next year, Mohun Bagan reached the second position in the league and the following year, narrowly lost the IFA Shield final to Middlesex Regiment.

On 8 August 1921, the club played its first match against East Bengal Club in the Coochbehar Cup semi-final, which ended in a goalless draw, but Mohun Bagn went on to beat them in the replay by 1–0 and gave rise to the Kolkata Derby. In 1922, Mohun Bagan played exhibition matches of cricket and football against a team of Indians from South Africa. The following year, Mohun Bagan was invited to Rovers Cup in Bombay, where they lost to Durham Light Infantry by 4–1. After 35 years of long association of Bhupendra Nath Basu with Mohun Bagan came to an end with his demise in 1924. After his death, Sir Rajendranath Mukherjee became the club's new president. The next year, Mohun Bagan became the first civilian Indian team to be invited to the oldest football tournament in Asia, Durand Cup, where they lost to Sherwood Foresters in the semi-finals. That year Mohun Bagan also failed to win the league and finished second. During this period, the club attended as well as hosted numerous charity matches all over the country for fundraising as the earnings from memberships weren't enough to run the club over a long period. On 28 May 1925, the club played its first official Derby against East Bengal and lost by 1–0. That year club played a charity match against Cheshire Regiment in 1927 to raise relief funds for the floods in Gujarat. In 1929, due to a clash during the match of Mohun Bagan and Dalhousie, all the native teams withdrew their names from the IFA registration. Later, it was negotiated on the condition that there would be equal number of European and Indian clubs in the association.

Significant contributions to the national team (1931–47)

Renowned Barrister Shailendra Nath Banerjee became the secretary of the club with the turn of the decade. In 1931 the club acquired the services of highly skilled players like, Karuna 'Habla' Bhattacharya and Syed Abdus Samad. In 1933, Gostho Pal got selected as the captain of IFA XI representing India for an away match against Ceylon, but the following year, due to injury, his defence partner Dr. Sanmatha Dutta led the tour to South Africa for a series of matches. 1935 saw a great change in Mohun Bagan’s tradition of playing with bare-feet when on the behest of Abdul Hamid, a renowned player who joined from Quetta, the club decided to use boots for the first time. In 1937, Mohun Bagan for the first time faced off against a foreign team – an English amateur club Islington Corinthians, who were on a world tour; but narrowly lost by 1–0. In 1938 the tradition of Mohun Bagan players leading IFA teams continued with Karuna Bhattacharya captaining a side to Australia, where he also scored against Australia as well as Football Queensland team during the tour. Mohun Bagan also broke a 29-year-old barren run in Trades Cup, in 1938. In second half 1930s both Umapati Kumar and Gostha Pal had retired, but the squad got competent reinforcements – Anil Dey in half back position and Satyen 'Mana' Guin in attack, who a right winger was nicknamed ''"Racing Deer"'' for his speed along the flanks. Captained by Bimal Mukherjee, son of Manmohan Mukherjee, and a host of quality players, Mohun Bagan broke their long wait for a major trophy in 1939 when they won their first ever Calcutta Football League title. Significantly, Mohun Bagan also celebrated its golden jubilee the same year, which was marked with celebrations across the city, match organized featuring renowned former players and medals and jerseys were distributed to the players. From 1933 to 1939 the club won 29 trophies, also out of 23 Derbies, they beat East Bengal 12 times, including 1 walkover win, drew 10 matches and lost only once to their arch-rival.

In 1941, the secretaryship was given to another famed barrister, B.C. Ghosh replaced Sailen Banerjee, who was elected as the club's vice-president. In 1942, for the first time, an insurance policy was implemented for the medical aid of the injured players during matches, and a medical board composed of reputed doctors was formed to oversee the medical issues. A trusty board was also formed on the initiative of a Solicitor B.K.Ghosh and Barrister S.K.Gupta for the monetary support of the club. In 1943 and 1944, Mohun Bagan won CFL in succession. In 1944, B.C. Ghosh became the club's vice-president, and Dr. S.K. Gupta took charge of the general secretary's office. Meanwhile, a junior football team was formed under the guidance of a former Mohun Bagan player, Balaidas Chattopadhyay, and also made efforts to introduce sports like rugby and baseball among the youth. In 1945, former vice-president and first captain of Mohun Bagan Manilal Sen expired. The same year, George Curtis, who was an Arsenal player stationed in India as a part of Royal Air Force in the World War II, took charge of the team as a coach for a brief stint. In 1947, Mohun Bagan got invitation to Madurai Cup but was beaten by Hyderabad Police in the final. This year the team once again participated in Rover’s Cup. Still, the tournament was called off due to the collapse of the Cooperage Ground during the quarter-final match against 1st Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment. This year Mohun Bagan won its second IFA Shield on 15 November by defeating its arch-rival East Bengal, thus fulfilling the prophecy of the club winning its second Shield only in the year of India's independence, and becoming the first club to win the Shield in post-independent India.

Struggle with consistency (1948–1950s)

In the first year after the independence, the club handed the captaincy for two years to Talimeren Ao, who had been a part of the club since 1943 after leaving Maharana Club in Guwahati. Ao went on to lead the national team in 1948 Summer Olympics in London, and along with him Mahabir Prasad and Sailen Manna. The club's secretary, Balai Das Chattopadhyay too had to leave for London as the team's head coach and trainer, therefore Gostho Pal took charge of his duties in club temporarily. Anil Dey was selected for the team as well but stayed behind. Dhanadaranjan' Bokai' Sen carried out the captain's duties in the absence of Ao. In the same year, the Kingdom of Afghanistan