Gollum Posted March 20, 2020 Posted March 20, 2020 (edited) Om Shanti, passed away earlier today aged 83. LINK - 65 international goals in 84 appearances - Only Asian player to receive FIFA's Order of Merit - MVP when India won gold in 1962 Asian Games, we beat South Korea in the final (apparently Chuni led us in that tournament) - Part of Indian side which finished 4th in 1956 Olympics losing to Bulgaria in the bronze medal match, we knocked out the hosts Australia in QF in a famous match before losing SF against Yugoslavia - Led India in 1960 Olympics where we drew against France courtesy his equalizer - Coached Indian national side, Mohun Bagan, East Bengal, too many accomplishments in club and domestic football to cover in one post Edited March 20, 2020 by Gollum Deleted_User_1, Laaloo, sandeep and 2 others 5
Gollum Posted March 20, 2020 Author Posted March 20, 2020 Obituary: The incomparable P. K. of Indian football I guess this leaves only Chuni Goswami as the last living legend from India's golden era in football. Syed Nayeemuddin was more successful as a manager, not a great player as such. All these legends dead... Sailen Manna PK Banerjee Jarnail Singh Dhillon Peter Thangaraj Balaram Jimmy Cliff 1
Norman Posted March 20, 2020 Posted March 20, 2020 On Shanti. P.S - wow I never knew we drew a football game against France , won an Asian games gold and finished fourth at the Olympics. How on earth did we not play a FIFA world cup ? I just wish football got atleast half the support and attention that Cricket did in India. Gollum 1
Gollum Posted March 23, 2020 Author Posted March 23, 2020 (edited) On 3/20/2020 at 9:32 PM, Norman said: On Shanti. P.S - wow I never knew we drew a football game against France , won an Asian games gold and finished fourth at the Olympics. How on earth did we not play a FIFA world cup ? I just wish football got atleast half the support and attention that Cricket did in India. We were a pretty good side for almost 2 decades, used to beat Japan, South Korea, Iran etc. quite often, sometimes thrash them. We qualified for the 1950 WC but as per FIFA rules we couldn't play barefoot, that is one of many theories why we pulled out but we were somewhat close to qualifying for WC in those years...impressive because only 16 teams used to qualify in that era (increased to 24 in 1982, then 32 in 1998). With 32 teams we would have definitely qualified a couple of times, we were top 3 or 4 in Asia. Football in Calcutta was at its peak those years but just like the state, the sport declined under Left Front rule, when that happened our fortunes suffered. With all due respect to Goa, Kerala, Punjab, NE (Manipur, Mizoram) it was Bengal that was the engine of our national side. We used to suck in cricket but dominate in hockey, excellent in tennis (singles) and decent in football. Honestly I will take that today, our cricket team is so overrated and frankly piss poor if you take into account the level of competition and available resources. We are seeing resurgence in hockey, football and tennis will take more time but tide will change I am sure. Edited March 23, 2020 by Gollum Norman 1
Gollum Posted March 23, 2020 Author Posted March 23, 2020 He scored multiple goals against Japan, Australia and South Korea. One against France which earned us a draw and our last point in Olympics football. Not a word from our PM, that is the status of non-cricket sports in this country. Everybody knows who Gavaskar is, but not the only Asian player in FIFA's Order of Merit, an honour PK shares with titans like Pele, Beckenbauer, Sir Bobby Charlton, Cruyff, Zico, Bobby Moore, Maldini etc.
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