Prasun Banerjee is an Indian former professional

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...

er and politician who is serving as an MP in the

Lok Sabha The Lok Sabha, constitutionally the House of the People, is the lower house of India's bicameral Parliament, with the upper house being the Rajya Sabha. Members of the Lok Sabha are elected by an adult universal suffrage and a first-past ...

from

Howrah Howrah (, , alternatively spelled as Haora) is a city in the Indian state of West Bengal. Howrah is located on the western bank of the Hooghly River opposite its twin city of Kolkata. Administratively it lies within Howrah district, and is th ...

. He is an

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

winner (1979). Younger brother of the

Pradip Kumar Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional footballer who played as a striker for the India national football team. He also captained the national team and later on became the coach of the national ...

, Prasun had also captained the

India national football team The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Indian team, which was once cons ...

in international tournaments.

Playing career

He was vice-captain of the India U-20 team that clinched

1974 AFC Youth Championship The 1974 AFC Youth Championship was held in Bangkok, Thailand. India and Iran shared the title after the final ended in a 2–2 Draw. Group stage Group A ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Group B ---- ---- ---- ---- ---- Group C ---- ...

title in Thailand. Banerjee began his club football career with

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is off ...

club

Kidderpore Khidirpur or Kidderpore is a neighborhood of metropolitan Kolkata (Calcutta), in Kolkata district, West Bengal, India. Etymology Most plausibly, the name is a corruption of ''Khidrpur'' or ''Khizarpur'', Khizr/Khidr being the guardian sai ...

. He also played for

Aryans Aryan or Arya (, Indo-Iranian *''arya'') is a term originally used as an ethnocultural self-designation by Indo-Iranians in ancient times, in contrast to the nearby outsiders known as 'non-Aryan' (*''an-arya''). In Ancient India, the term ' ...

. He was included in the All Time Best-XI team of

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 ...

as a central defensive midfielder. He was only the second Indian to play for Asian All-star XI. He also played two matches against Brazil for Asian All-star XI and played against Zico, Eder, Falcao, Socretes and others. He was included in the Limca book of record for representing India in 100 football matches. In 2013, he won the bypoll to the Howrah Sadar parliamentary constituency on a

Trinamool Congress The All India Trinamool Congress (English: All India Grassroots Congress; AITC), colloquially the Trinamool Congress ( TMC) is an Indian political party which is predominantly active in West Bengal. The party is led by Mamata Banerjee, the cur ...

ticket thus becoming the first professional footballer to be a Member of Parliament, India (

). He won the seat defeating his adversary, Left Front's Sridip Bhattacharya, by more than 27,000 votes. He was re-elected to the

16th Lok Sabha Members of the 16th Lok Sabha were elected during the 2014 Indian general election. The elections were conducted in 9 phases from 7 April 2014 to 12 May 2014 by the Election Commission of India. The results of the election were declared on 16 M ...

in 2014.

Early life

Prasun is the younger brother of India's player of the 20th century and former national coach,

P. K. Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional footballer who played as a striker for the India national football team. He also captained the national team and later on became the coach of the national ...

. He is a graduate of the

University of Calcutta The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate State university (India), state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered ...

Career statistics

India national team

Debut: 26 July 1974 vs Malaysia, in Merdeka Cup at Kuala Lumpur (Prasun Banerjee came in as a substitute for Gautam Sarkar).
No of Matches Played – 49
No of Matches played as a captain – 5
Goals Scored – 3

International tournaments

Asian Games – 1974, 1978, 1982.
Merdeka Cup (Kuala Lumpur) – 1974, 1981, 1982.
Pre Olympics – 1980 (Captain).
Nehru Cup – 1982.
Kings Cup (Bangkok) – 1977, 1981.
Presidents Cup (Seoul) – 1982.
Aga Khan Gold Cup (Dhaka) – 1977.

Other Achievements

Prasun Banerjee was the Joint Captain of the Indian Youth Team along with Sabbir Ali which became Joint Champions with Iran in Asian Youth Soccer Tournament at Bangkok.

Bengal

Santosh Trophy – 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 (Captain), 1982.
Goals Scored – 3
Championships Won – 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979 (Captain) and 1982 (Joint) – 6 times

Clubs

* Mohun Bagan – 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1978 (Captain), 1979, 1980, 1982, 1983. Goals Scored – 24 goals (CFL – 14, Bordoloi Trophy – 4, IFA Shield – 1, Durand Cup – 1, Rovers Cup – 1, Federation Cup −2, Darjeeling Gold Cup – 1).
Trophies Won - Calcutta Football League (4) – 1976, 1978, 1979, 1983.
IFA Shield (5) – 1976 (Joint), 1977, 1978 (Joint), 1979, 1982.
Durand Cup (5) – 1974, 1977, 1979, 1980, 1982 (Joint).
Rovers Cup (2) – 1976, 1977.
Federation Cup (3) – 1978 (Joint), 1980 (Joint), 1982.
Bordoloi Trophy (4) – 1974, 1975, 1976, 1977.
Darjeeling Gold Cup (4) – 1975, 1976 (Joint), 1979, 1982.
Nagjee Trophy (1) – 1978. Total – 28. * Mohammedan Sporting – 1981, 1984, 1985 Goals Scored – 4 (CFL – 1, Federation Cup – 2, Sanjay Gandhi Gold Cup – 1).
Trophies Won - Calcutta Football League – 1981.
Federation Cup – 1984.
Sanjay Gandhi Gold Cup – 1981.
Stafford Cup – 1981 (Joint).
Nizam Gold Cup – 1984.
Nagjee Trophy – 1984.
Rovers Cup – 1984.
Darjeeling Gold Cup – 1984.
Bordoloi Trophy – 1985 Total – 9

Coaching

Prasun Banerjee has also coached Mohun Bagan for two months in the 1990–91 season.

Honours

India *

King's Cup __NOTOC__ King's Cup (incl. translations), may refer to: Sports Football * Copa del Rey, Spanish for "King's Cup," the main national knockout tournament in men's football * King Cup (sometimes named King's Cup), Saudi Arabian men's football nati ...

third place:

1977 Events January * January 8 – Three bombs explode in Moscow within 37 minutes, killing seven. The bombings are attributed to an Armenian separatist group. * January 10 – Mount Nyiragongo erupts in eastern Zaire (now the Democratic R ...

India U20 * AFC Asian U-19 Championship:

1974 Major events in 1974 include the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis and the resignation of United States President Richard Nixon following the Watergate scandal. In the Middle East, the aftermath of the 1973 Yom Kippur War determined politics; f ...

Individual *

: 1979 *Shaan-e-Mohammedan: 2016