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P. K. Banerjee (1936 - 2020)
Pradip Kumar Banerjee was born on 23 June 1936 in Jalpaiguri, Bengal Presidency, British India. He was a former Indian footballer and football coach.
He played as a Striker and made 84 appearances for India, scoring 65 goals during the course of his career.
At the age of 15, playing on the right wing, Banerjee represented Bihar in Santosh Trophy.
In 1954 he joined the Aryan club of Kolkata state in India. Later he represented Eastern Railway of India.
He debuted in the Indian national team with the Quadrangular tournament of 1955 held in Dacca (now Dhaka), East Pakistan (now the capital of Bangladesh) as a 19 year old.
He represented India in three Asian Games - 1958 in Tokyo, 1962 in Jakarta, where India won the gold medal, and 1966 in Bangkok.
At the 1956 Summer Olympics held in Melbourne he was a part of the national team.
He represented India thrice at the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur, where India won silver medals in 1959 and 1964 and bronze in 1965.
He was captain of Indian national team at the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome, where he scored an equalizer against France in a 1-1 draw.
Frequent injuries forced him to leave the national team and also retire in 1967.
He started coaching football teams and his first team was the East Bengal Football Club.
He guided Mohan Bagan to a historic win of the IFA Shield, Rovers Cup and Durand Cup respectively to achieve their first-ever triple-crown triumph in one season.
In 1972, he became the Indian national coach with the 1972 Munich Olympics qualifying matches being guided by him.
He continued to coach the Indian Football Team till 1986.
In 1999, Banerjee took up the post of the technical director of the Indian Football team.
When the Arjuna Award was instituted in 1961, he was one of the first recipients of the award. In 1990, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri.
He has been named Indian Footballer of the 20th century by FIFA.
He has been awarded the FIFA Order of Merit, the highest honour awarded by FIFA, in 2004.
PK was awarded the player of the Millennium in 2005 by FIFA.
Banerjee is the only footballer from Asia who has been awarded the FAIR PLAY Award.
HONOURS
- Asian Games Gold Medal: 1962 Asian Games
- Merdeka Tournament Silver Medal: 1959, 1964
- Arjuna Award: 1961
- Padma Shri: 1990
- Indian Footballer of 20th Century (Awarded by FIFA)
- FIFA Centennial Order of Merit
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