Subhash Bhowmick (2 October 1950 – 22 January 2022) was an Indian football player and manager. During his playing career, he represented the "Big Two" of Kolkata football,

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = East ...

and

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 ...

. He also represented

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

in various international tournaments between 1970 and 1985. He was popularly known as ''Bhombol'' in the football arena of the

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fou ...

Club career

Bhowmick joined

East Bengal Club East Bengal Club, commonly referred to as East Bengal (), is an Indian professional multi-sport club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. It is best known for its professional men's football team that competes in the Indian Super League, the top fl ...

in 1969 and, after spending a season there, joined Mohun Bagan in 1970. He was part of the club's

Bangladesh Bangladesh (}, ), officially the People's Republic of Bangladesh, is a country in South Asia. It is the eighth-most populous country in the world, with a population exceeding 165 million people in an area of . Bangladesh is among the mos ...

tour of May 1972, where they defeated

Dhaka Mohammedan Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited Dhaka, founded in 1936 at Dhaka, is one of the oldest and one of the most popular football clubs in Bangladesh, with a support base in all parts of the country. The club currently plays in the Bangladesh Premie ...

, but lost to Shadhin Bangla football team. At the end of the 1973 season, he returned to East Bengal and represented them till 1976, after which he rejoined Mohun Bagan. In East Bengal, he got guidance of legendary coach Sushil Bhattacharya. He was one of the prime faces of East Bengal team which had demolished

5–0 in the 1975

IFA Shield The IFA Shield is an annual football competition organized by the Indian Football Association. The IFA is the governing body of football in the state of West Bengal, came into existence in 1893. Named after the association, the IFA Shield to ...

final at

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

. After the 1977–78 season, he returned to East Bengal and retired in 1979. During his playing years, he was known as a powerful forward with good goal scoring abilities. He scored 83 goals for East Bengal and 82 for the Mohun Bagan between 1969 to 1977 as Kolkata football's popularity was at its peak during that era.

International career

Bhowmick represented India in various tournaments. He was a member of the Indian football team managed by

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 ...

, that won the Bronze medal in the Asian Games in

1970 Events January * January 1 – Unix time epoch reached at 00:00:00 UTC. * January 5 – The 7.1 Tonghai earthquake shakes Tonghai County, Yunnan province, China, with a maximum Mercalli intensity of X (''Extreme''). Between 10,000 and ...

. in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estimated populati ...

, Thailand. He also represented India at the

Merdeka Tournament Merdeka Tournament or Pestabola Merdeka is a friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. The competition bears the Malay word for independence. As of 2022, it has been held 40 times, and decreasingly in ...

, and won Pesta Sukan Cup in 1971.

Coaching career

Bhowmick began his coaching career in

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 offi ...

club George Telegraph. Since joining East Bengal in 1999, he came out as one of the most successful coaches in the history of the club. He had a forgettable first stint with the same club during the 1999–2000 season. During his second stint as coach, the club won a multitude of trophies including back to back NFL titles in 2002–03 and 2003–04, apart from Kolkata Football League, Durand Cup and IFA Shield victories. East Bengal also won the

ASEAN Club Championship The ASEAN Club Championship or ACC is an international club football competition organised by the ASEAN Football Federation between domestic champion clubs. The competition is backed by AFC and FIFA. The first edition was sponsored by LG Electron ...

in Indonesia in 2003 under his managership. Bhowmick stepped down as coach of East Bengal in 2005 after being implicated in an alleged bribery scandal. He managed Mohammedan Sporting Club during the 2006 season, but was not as successful there as he was during his stint with East Bengal. In 2007, a relegation threatened Salgaocar SC appointed Subhash Bhowmick to be their technical director. He remained as the Technical Director of the

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

n outfit for the 2008 season also. Towards the end of the 2008–09

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

, a relegation threatened

appointed Bhowmick as their coach. He was retained as coach for the 2009–10 season, a particularly dismal season for the club. East Bengal lost all the matches they played, most of them against smaller clubs, in both the

as well as the

Durand Cup The Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as Durand Cup, is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Shimla. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and All India Football Federation ...

. Supporters and club officials fixed the blame squarely on Bhowmick, as he was essentially the only man responsible for team making and pre-season training for the 2009–10 season. Despite significant autonomy granted to Bhowmick by East Bengal administrators, as well as provision of extra training facilities, his team failed to perform. In the 2012–13 season, he coached Goan side

Churchill Brothers SC Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

as a technical director (as he did not hold an A-license, hence he could not officially be the coach of an I-League club), and led them to the top of the league standings in the

Controversy

On 2 December 2005, near

Calcutta South Club Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, commerci ...

, Bhowmick was caught red handed and arrested by the police for bribery case. Bhowmick was a superintend of Central Excise and alleged to have accepted bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from a businessman. According to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), he had demanded the money from a

Behala Behala is a locality of South West Kolkata, in the Indian state of West Bengal. Behala is a part of Kolkata Municipal Corporation area. It is broadly spread across Ward Nos. 118, 119, 120, 121, 122, 123, 124, 125, 126, 127, 128, 129, 130 ...

based businessman to settle his issue. In June 2018, the CBI Court found him guilty and sentenced Bhowmick to three years imprisonment. His career was also marred after the Corruption controversy.

Death

Bhowmick died in

Ekbalpur Ekbalpur is a neighbourhood of South Kolkata in Kolkata district in the Indian state of West Bengal. History Ekbalpur developed as a Muslim area, as it received a large number of people displaced with the development of the zoo at Zirat, Alipor ...

on 22 January 2022, at the age of 71. He suffered from diabetes and kidney ailments prior to his death.

Legacy

In July 2022,

announced the club awards have been named after famous personalities to be awarded to sportspersons every year henceforth, and "Best Forward Award" was renamed as Subhash Bhowmick Award in memory of him; which was won by

Kiyan Nassiri Kiyan Nassiri Giri (born 17 November 2000) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as an attacking midfielder or winger for Indian Super League club Mohun Bagan SG. Personal life Kiyan is the son of former Iran national youth team ...

Honours

As player

India * Asian Games Bronze medal:

Third place: 1970 *Pesta Sukan Cup: 1971 Bengal * Santosh Trophy: 1969, 1971, 1972, 1975 East Bengal *

: 1973, 1974, 1975 *

Rovers Cup The Rovers Cup was an annual football tournament held in India, organized by the Western India Football Association. It was the second oldest tournament in India after Durand Cup. History Rovers Cup was incorporated by some British football ent ...

: 1969, 1970, 1971, 1972, 1973 *

DCM Trophy The Delhi Cloth Mills Trophy, known simply as D.C.M. Trophy, was an invitational football tournament in India. It was held annually in New Delhi and was organised by the local Delhi Football Association. It was India's first football tournamen ...

: 1973, 1974 Mohun Bagan *Calcutta Football League: 1976, 1978 *IFA Shield: 1976, 1977, 1978 *

: 1977 *

Indian Federation Cup The Federation Cup (also known as Hero Federation Cup for sponsorship reasons) was an annual knockout football competition in Indian football which started in 1977. From its inception, until I-League was started in 1997 (then called NFL), ...

: 1978 *Rovers Cup: 1975, 1976, 1977 * Bordoloi Trophy: 1976, 1977 *

Darjeeling Gold Cup All India Darjeeling Gold Cup, also known as All India Brigade of Gorkha's Gold Cup Football Tournament, or simply GTA Chairman's Gold Cup, is an Indian association football tournament held in Darjeeling and organized by the Indian Darjeeling G ...

: 1976 * Sait Nagjee Trophy: 1978

As manager

East Bengal *

: 2003 *

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

: 2002–03, 2003–04 *San Miguel International Cup: 2004 * Indian Super Cup: 2006 *

: 2002, 2004 *

: 2000, 2001, 2002 *

: 2000, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006 Churchill Brothers *

2012–13 1 (one, unit, unity) is a number representing a single or the only entity. 1 is also a numerical digit and represents a single unit of counting or measurement. For example, a line segment of ''unit length'' is a line segment of length 1. I ...

Individual

* East Bengal "Lifetime Achievement Award": 2017

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (2017). ''Mohun Bagan–East Bengal'' .

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

: Parul Prakashan.

External links

International goals by Subhash Bhowmick
at ''

RSSSF The Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation (RSSSF) is an international organization dedicated to collecting statistics about association football. The foundation aims to build an exhaustive archive of football-related information from around th ...

''
Interview of Subhash Bhowmick
at ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhowmick, Subhash 1950 births 2022 deaths Indian footballers India international footballers Footballers from West Bengal Indian football coaches People from Malda district I-League managers East Bengal Club managers Asian Games medalists in football Footballers at the 1970 Asian Games Footballers at the 1974 Asian Games Association football forwards Asian Games bronze medalists for India Medalists at the 1970 Asian Games Calcutta Football League players Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) managers Mohun Bagan AC managers Deaths from kidney disease Deaths from diabetes