Surajit Sengupta, former captain of the East Bengal football club, died on Thursday in Kolkata after losing his battle with Covid-19
Surajit was a member of the Indian National Football team that won bronze at the Asian Games in 1970, and he was well-known among East Bengal fans. His death will be a further blow to East Bengal, which recently lost another veteran, Subhas Bhowmick.
He was most known for winning the IFA Shield with East Bengal in 1975, when his team thrashed Mohun Bagan 5-0, the largest defeat for Mohun Bagan in a Kolkata rivalry to date. Surajit had scored the game’s first goal.
Surajit Sengupta was part of East Bengal’s Golden Era, during which the team won the Calcutta Football League for six consecutive years between 1970 and 1976, and he won the IFA Shield six times and the Durand Cup three times.
East Bengal’s rival team Mohun Bagan paid homage to the legend.
