Soccer Crazy

Amiya Ghosh (65) is one such name to reckon with. He is constantly nurturing local talents from the grass-roots level. The coach of U-15 Mohun Bagan team,Amiya opted for football in his childhood. Like any other Bengali boy he was inspired for playing football by his family as his father and uncle used to play soccer at the club level.

At the age of 14,Kashi Ghosh took him to a club at Bhowanipur where he was selected to play for Players Corner for the Under Height tournament. The tournament was meant for boys who have attained the height of 4ft 10 inches.

“In my childhood,I have played a lot of such tournaments and in my days this type of tournament gained a lot of popularity.”

Then he moved on to Behala Youth Club where he played at the division level. Playing at mid-field,Amiya was the cynosure of all eyes. His personal career in football did not last very long though. But his passion for the game made him come back as a coach. His journey as a coach began in 1972 when he took charge of Jayashree Kalyan Sangha in Behala,the place where he lives.

The team played an under height tournament and under his guidance the team came up tops in the tournament. In 1978,the team was invited to play exhibition matches in Bangladesh at Bagerhat,Chapai Nawabgaunj,Gopalgunj,Mirpur,Dhaka,Narayangunj and Jamalpur.

“It was my first assignment as a coach of a nursery team in foreign soil and my happiness knew no bounds when our team got the invite to play,” he added. Amiya’s role as a nursery coach was a resounding success,so much so that in 1980 Rupak Saha,a renowned reporter of Ananda Bazar,brought him to East Bengal Club and suggested he coach the U-16 East Bengal team.

Since then there has been no looking back for Amiya as a coach. In 1985,the All India Football Federation stated in a circular that each big team will have to form a sub team or a mini form of each big team and each of those mini teams will vie against one another in the All India Sub-Junior Federation Cup at New Delhi.

Amiya was selected as the coach of East Bengal team for the tournament. In 1986,in the second edition of the tournament at Madras,his team left a mark and became the runners up. He says,“Though the tournament lasted three years but during this period players like Amitava Chanda,Debashis Pal Chowdhury,Ranjan Bhattacharya,Abir Hussain made their mark.”

In July 1996 under his coaching the U-16 East Bengal team went to Sweden to play the Gothica Cup and once again they were runners up among 32 countries that participated in the tournament. He remained the nursery coach of East Bengal for 12 years. However,in 1997 he was brought to Mohan Bagan Athletic Club by the club’s general secretary Anjan Mitra. Since then he has been serving them for 14 years as coach of the sub-junior and junior Mohun Bagan team.

“During my coaching of East Bengal team,I was so intensely involved with the kids that after I joined Mohun Bagan all the 18 players from East Bengal switched over to Mohun Bagan,” he says.

After joining Mohan Bagan his success as a coach continued. His first victory in the camp came in 1998 as his sub-junior team became the champions in Dana Cup in Denmark followed by his junior team becoming the runners up at Tiaoh Cup at Nagaland and then in 2002 it clinched the championship in U-16 category by beating East Bengal in an All India Basis Tournament at Andamans. In the same year a renowned TV channel organised a U-14 tournament where under his coaching Chandernagore High School became the champions.

2008 was a special year for his team as the Mohun Bagan junior team participated in Danon Cup (Mini World Cup) in France and there his team was placed among the top12 teams of the world.

As a coach he always preferred training kids because he believes that it is easy to mould and train a kid in this particular age as his muscles do not become stiff and are much more flexible than a 17 or 18 year old. He says the satisfaction he gets in teaching these kids is boundless.

On Bengal’s sub-junior and junior level football,he says,“In Bengal coaching should reach all age groups otherwise talents will not come out.”

Amiya is credited with training some star players like Souvik Ghosh,Somnath Mondal and Tavrez Rahman. Some of these selected players between 17 to 19 years of age will be sent to Mohun Bagan Sail Academy at Durgapur. This academy is like a hostel where every player is given stipend for playing.