Remembering the legend Chuni Goswami by Mrinal Kanti Roy & Manash Kumar Das

May 01: Former India footballer Subimal “Chuni” Goswami, who captained the 1962 Asian Games gold-winning team, died in Kolkata on Thursday after suffering a cardiac arrest at the age of 82. Goswami was among the rare sportsmen who played more than one sport at the highest levels; not only was he among India’s greatest ever footballers, he played first-class cricket for Bengal and captained them to the final of the Ranji Trophy in 1971-72. Goswami played 50 matches for India as a footballer from 1956-64 and represented Bengal in 46 first-class games between 1962-73. Under his captaincy, the Indian football team won gold at the 1962 Asian Games, finished runner-up at the Asian Cup in 1964 and narrowly lost to Burma in Mardeka football six months later. In club football, Goswami always played for Mohun Bagan. In his college days, he captained Calcutta University in both football and cricket in the same year.

The passing of the legendary Chuni Goswami has left all deeply saddened with an outpouring of emotions from the respected names in the sporting world. Barak Valley too mourned the death of this sports legend and shared their opinion with us.

Speaking to way2barak, the globetrotting international referee Mrinal Kanti Roy recounted officiating in the benefit match in his honour. He would meet the legend while officiating in Kolkata during the late 90s and the early 2000s. Mr. Roy also shared the dais with the legends Chuni Goswami and Shyam Sundar Ghosh in a panel discussion organised by journalists after the FIFA World Cup of 1998. Speaking about the contrast between other footballing greats and Chuni Goswami, Mr Roy added,”Football is a team game and you cannot compare stars from different generations because of the different systems of playing.

Chuni Goswami was a striker at a time when the 3-2-5 system was in vogue. PK was an outside winger and Sailen Manna was a stopper back. PK believed in his killer instinct whereas Chuni was a real artist whose concept and perception was ultimate making him an all time best dribbler, an exceptional cricketer, a tennis player as well as a film personality. To the best of my knowledge, Chuni came to Silchar thrice, the first time as a player and played at the India Club ground, the second time during the Platinum Jubilee celebration of India Club and the third time at the Benefit Match at the behest of the late Sontosh Mohan Dev when Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and Mohammedan Sporting played at Silchar. It was most probably in the year 1992 that the benefit matches in honour of PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Prasanta Singha, Balaram, Mewaram were played in Silchar and Durgapur. We have lost a true artist today.”

Chuni Goswami scored 200 goals for the Green-and-Maroons (Mohun Bagan) and helped them win the Calcutta Football League nine times, the IFA Shield and the Durand Cup five times each, the Rovers Cup thrice, the Dr. HK Mookerjee Shield five times, Babu Kuer Singh Shield thrice, and the Ananda Bazar Centenary Trophy once. He won 14 trophies for Mohun Bagan as captain.Chuni Goswami won numerous awards during his playing career as well as after retirement for his contribution towards Indian football. The major awards won by him are: Best Striker of Asia Award in 1962, Arjuna award in 1963, Padma Shri award in 1983 and Mohun Bagan Ratna in 2005.

We’re deeply saddened by the passing of former player and club Legend Sri Subimal (Chuni) Goswami, aged 83.

Our thoughts and prayers are with his family during this difficult time.

Rest in peace, Chuni Goswami. pic.twitter.com/H7yERNYNLN

— Mohun Bagan (@Mohun_Bagan) April 30, 2020

Veteran footballer Manash Kumar Das witnessed Chuni Goswami back in the late fifties when he played at the India Club Ground against Assam Rifles who had won the Captain NM Gupta Trophy that year. An inside right player who played for the Mission Road based Jogajog Sangha, Mr Das told way2barak how the game was played back in the day, “In those days, the formation was 3-2-5. The five forwards were Right winger, Left winger and the Centre forward in the middle, right-in and left-in. The Centre Forward was the main striker. The midfield was looked after by the two halves-right half and left half.Deep defence was one right-back, one left back and in the middle one stopper back.”

Mr Das also fondly reminisced his being part of the first team to win the second division league of DSA in his only season before moving to Shillong after getting a job and spoke about the football scene in Silchar during the 70s, “My all-time favourite goalkeeper was Himendu-da. Probhash-da was a superb stopper back. Bhanu-da was a class one striker. He was a player of tremendous calibre but wasted his talent by sheer negligence. He did play for Assam with distinction alongside Gilbertson, the other striker. And what a deadly combination it was! Back then,India Club, Town Club, PWD Club, United Club, Police AC and Sunrise Club used to be the First Division teams. All were very competitive teams but the Derby was the match between India Club and Town Club. People really loved that special game. It was quite a crowd that would enjoy the Derby.”

“Chuni Goswami,who played for Mohun Bagan and India was a wizard with the ball. He was an ace dribbler and the ball would stick to his feet like glue. He will be dearly missed”, an emotional Mr Das signs off.