East Bengal goof up in Costa Rican Johnny Acosta’s unveiling

East Bengal FC were left embarrassed when they had to cancel the unveiling of the Costa Rican 2018 World Cup player Johnny Acosta as the Kolkata club failed to arrange an interpretor for the player.

East Bengal were left red-faced after they had to postpone Johnny Acosta’s unveiling. (Source: East Bengal Twitter)

East Bengal FC were left embarrassed when they had to cancel the unveiling of the Costa Rican 2018 World Cup player Johnny Acosta as the Kolkata club failed to arrange an interpreter for the player.

The unveiling was scheduled to take place at 5.30pm at East Bengal’s media centre on Wednesday. Since Acosta was not accompanied by a translator, the club officials decided to take the help of ‘Google Translator’ for the unveiling. But unfortunately, poor network at the media centre left the officials as well as newly-appointed CEO Sanjit Sen red-faced.

According to Goal.com, club ambassador Alvito D’Cumham, who is from Goa, tried his best to help with the little Portuguese he knew but could not translate accurately the two languages. Acosta was then asked to move to a different corner of the media centre where there was better connectivity but most of the questions from the journalists were in Bengali, making the task of ‘Google Translator’ even more difficult.

VIDEO: The special moment when Johnny Acosta put on the No.2 jersey of the 98 year old QUESS East Bengal club of Kolkata , India@repretelcr @JhonnyAcosta03 @ProbasheEB @ebultras1920 @EBRPFC pic.twitter.com/mn2fbVmslh

— East Bengal News Analysis (@QEBNA) 8 August 2018

Today Johnny Acosta had a gool feel of the pulse of the QUESS East Bengal fans pic.twitter.com/ojoU0qHRL4

— EAST BENGAL the REAL POWER (@EBRPFC) 6 August 2018

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East Bengal received social media flak after the lack of planning saw the press conference being postponed to Thursday.

Johnny Acosta’s press conference cancelled as the club didn’t arrange an interpreter for the player. Height of unprofessionalism from a club who recently got a high profile investor. #QEB #EastBengal pic.twitter.com/vWrUotF3xG

— Ritabrata Banerjee (@ritabrata20) 8 August 2018

Quess East Bengal could not ensure presence of an interpreter for the intro. pc of World Cupper Johnny Acosta Zamora! Google translate was entrusted n failed miserably! presser had to be postponed… professionalism at its worst!! #EastBengal pic.twitter.com/QIkiGRvcWp

— Kashinath (@bkashi) 8 August 2018

East Bengal had the resources to buy Johnny Acosta, a Costa Rican who featured at the #WorldCup this year, but couldn’t arrange an interpreter for his interaction with the media. Excellent. #IndianFootball https://t.co/zK1hABLtzI

— Manasi Pathak (@ThatUnitedLady) 8 August 2018

Not the first media interaction Costa Rican Johnny Acosta had in mind surely with @eastbengalfc. No interpreter so no introduction

— Abhimanyu Sen (@abhimanyusen) 8 August 2018

Acosta watched his new side East Bengal’s first game of the Calcutta Football League (CFL) on Monday and said, “It was an attractive match. The fans impressed me the most.”

Acosta has 69 international caps to his name and has scored two goals as his signing for the upcoming season will give the red-and-gold a big boost. At the World Cup, he had eight clearances and recovered the ball 11 times. He made his debut for Costa Rica in a March 2011 friendly against Argentina at the age of 29.