Surajit Sengupta (30 August 1951 – 17 February 2022) was an Indian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

who played as a winger. He played for the India national team, representing the country in the 1974 Asian Games in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

and the 1978 Asian Games in

Bangkok Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, 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 estima ...

. In a domestic career spanning twelve years between 1971 and 1983, he had represented all three of Calcutta's football clubs,

Mohun Bagan FC Mohun Bagan Super Giant (commonly referred to as Mohun Bagan) is an Indian association football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, it is one of the oldest football clubs in Asia. The club competes in the Indian Super League, ...

East Bengal FC 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 ...

, and Mohammedan Sporting FC, and was considered one of the finest forwards of his time. Sengupta won the

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 ...

and the

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 ...

six times each and 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 ...

thrice while representing East Bengal FC. He appeared with East Bengal from 1974 to 1980 and captained the team in 1978–79. He received the lifetime achievement award from East Bengal in 2018.

Early life

Sengupta was born on 30 August 1951, in Chakbazar in the

Hooghly district Hooghly district () is one of the districts of the Indian state of West Bengal. It can alternatively be spelt ''Hoogli'' or ''Hugli''. The district is named after the Hooghly River. The headquarters of the district are at Hooghly-Chinsura (''C ...

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 fourt ...

. His father, Suhas Sengupta, was a football and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by striki ...

player who worked for Dunlop India. Sengupta studied at the Hooghly Branch School where he was spotted by coach Ashwini Bharat. He went on to study at the

Hooghly Mohsin College Hooghly Mohsin College (HMC) began on 1 August 1836 as the New Hooghly College. It was established by Muhammad Mohsin, who also started other colleges. On its 100th anniversary it was renamed Hooghly Mohsin College. It became affiliated to Unive ...

and made his second division debut for Robert Hudson FC.

Club career

Sengupta made his domestic debut playing for the

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

club in 1971 before moving to

Mohun Bagan AC 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 ...

and playing for the club between 1972 and 1974. He was part of Mohun Bagan'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 in 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 ...

and lost to Dhaka XI. He later moved to

for six seasons between 1974 and 1980. He represented Mohammedan SC between 1980 and 1981 before returning to Mohan Bagan between 1981 and 1983. Amongst his best experiences was a 1975 IFA Shield Final where he led East Bengal's 5–0 win against their Kolkata rivals Mohun Bagan. Most of his victories came during his time with East Bengal FC. He was also the captain of the West Bengal team in the 1976 Santosh Trophy. In a domestic career spanning twelve years he represented all three of Calcutta's football clubs and had won the

and the

six times each and the

thrice for East Bengal FC. Sengupta received the lifetime achievement award from East Bengal in 2018.

International career

Sengupta made his debut for the India national team in 1974 in a game against

Thailand Thailand ( ), historically known as Siam () and officially the Kingdom of Thailand, is a country in Southeast Asia, located at the centre of the Indochinese Peninsula, spanning , with a population of almost 70 million. The country is bo ...

in the

Merdeka Cup 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 ...

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

. He represented the country in 14 games, including the 1974 Asian Games in

and the 1978 Asian Games in

. He also represented the country in the 1974 Merdeka Cup and the 1977 President's Cup in

Seoul Seoul (; ; ), officially known as the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea.Before 1972, Seoul was the ''de jure'' capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (North Korea) as stated iArticle 103 ...

Style of play

Sengupta played as winger and was known for his playing speed and passing range. Per an article in the Indian newspaper ''

The Hindu ''The Hindu'' is an Indian English-language daily newspaper owned by The Hindu Group, headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. It began as a weekly in 1878 and became a daily in 1889. It is one of the Indian newspapers of record and the secon ...

'', he was considered one of the finest and creative forwards of his time.

Personal life and death

Sengupta was married to Shyamali Sengupta, with whom he had a son. After his retirement he was involved with the game as a sports editor with a Bengali language magazine writing their football columns. He learnt singing and would play the

Tabla A tabla, bn, তবলা, prs, طبلا, gu, તબલા, hi, तबला, kn, ತಬಲಾ, ml, തബല, mr, तबला, ne, तबला, or, ତବଲା, ps, طبله, pa, ਤਬਲਾ, ta, தபலா, te, తబల� ...

with his son. East Bengal coach and former Indian footballer

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 ...

had named him

Sócrates Sócrates Brasileiro Sampaio de Souza Vieira de Oliveira (19 February 1954 – 4 December 2011), simply known as Sócrates, was a Brazilian footballer who played as a midfielder. His medical degree and his political awareness, combined with sty ...

after the Brazilian footballer, given his sporting a beard and his varied interests. Sengupta died from

COVID-19 Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...

-related complications on 17 February 2022, at the age of 70.

Honours

East Bengal *

: 1974, 1975, 1977 *

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 ...

: 1974 *

: 1974, 1975, 1976 *

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 *

Federation Cup Federation Cup or Fed Cup is the former name of the premier world team competition in women's tennis. Federation Cup may also refer to: * Capital Football Federation Cup, an Australian territory-based association football tournament *Federation Cup ...

: 1978–79 *

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 ...

: 1973–74, 1975–76 *

: 1978 * Bordoloi Trophy: 1978

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * * *Bandyopadhyay, Santipriya (1979). ''Cluber Naam 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 ...

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

: Parul Prakashan.

External links

News on Surajit Sengupta
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:Sengupta, Surajit 1951 births 2022 deaths Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in India Indian men's footballers India men's international footballers Footballers from West Bengal Men's association football wingers Footballers at the 1974 Asian Games Footballers at the 1978 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India Mohun Bagan Super Giant players East Bengal Club players Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players People from Hooghly district