Biswajit Bhattacharya is a retired Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

and football manager. He most recently managed

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is off ...

club

Calcutta Customs Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comm ...

and is the current head coach of

West Bengal football team The West Bengal football team (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ ফুটবল দল) is an Indian football team representing West Bengal in Indian state football competitions including the Santosh Trophy. They became the second Ind ...

Playing career

East Bengal

Bhattacharya played as a striker in the

India national football team The India national football team represents India in international football and is governed by the All India Football Federation (AIFF). The team is affiliated to FIFA and Asian Football Confederation (AFC). Indian team, which was once ...

and played for both the

clubs

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = Eas ...

and

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

. In 1985, he won Federation Cup with East Bengal and went on to play at the

1985–86 Asian Club Championship The 1985–86 Asian Club Championship was the fifth edition of the annual Asian club football competition hosted by the Asian Football Confederation, and was the first such tournament in 14 years. Several clubs played in the qualifying round in t ...

in Saudi Arabia. Managed by

P. K. Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional association football, footballer who played as a forward (association football), striker for the India national football team. He also captained the nationa ...

, East Bengal was part of Central Asia Zone, and the tournament was named "Coca-Cola Cup" where they defeated multiple teams to win it. In the opener against New Road Team of Nepal, they earned a massive 7–0 win, where Bhattacharya netted four goals. They also defeated

Dhaka Abahani Abahani Limited Dhaka ( bn, ঢাকা আবাহনী লিমিটেড), also referred as Dhaka Abahani or Abahani Limited, is a Bangladeshi professional football club based in the Dhanmondi area of Dhaka, Bangladesh. The club cu ...

1–0, thrashed

Club Valencia Club Valencia is a Republic of the Maldives, Maldivian football (soccer), football club based in Malé, Maldives. Nicknamed ''The Sunrisers'', the club competes in the Dhivehi Premier League, the top tier of Football in Maldives, Maldivian footb ...

of Maldives 9–0 (the biggest margin of victory by an Indian team over any foreign opponents).

India

He represented

India India, officially the Republic of India ( Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the ...

at the

1984 AFC Asian Cup The 1984 AFC Asian Cup was the 8th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were hosted by Singapore between 1 December and 16 December 19 ...

in Singapore. He scored a goal against

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

in 1984 Nehru Cup. That was India's only goal in the tournament. After a bike accident, Bhattacharya left his playing career and entered into coaching.

Managerial career

Bhattacharya managed

East Bengal ur, , common_name = East Bengal , status = Province of the Dominion of Pakistan , p1 = Bengal Presidency , flag_p1 = Flag of British Bengal.svg , s1 = Eas ...

in the 2015–16 season and helped the team winning

. In 2017–18, he managed Mohammedan Sporting. With Mohammedan, he won

Bordoloi Trophy The Bordoloi Trophy, also known as the Bharat Ratna Lokopriya Gopinath Bordoloi Trophy, is a premier annual Indian football tournament held in Guwahati and organized by Guwahati Sports Association (GSA). The tournament was first started in 1952 ...

, defeating Oil India Limited by 3–1 margin in final. In 2018, he was appointed head coach of

Peerless Peerless may refer to: Companies and organizations * Peerless Motor Company, an American automobile manufacturer. * Peerless Brewing Company, in Birkenhead, UK * Peerless Group, an insurance and financial services company in India * Peerless Reco ...

in the

. In 2019, he moved abroad and managed Bhutan Premier League club Paro. In that year, they won league title. On 1 July 2021, Southern Samity appointed Bhattacharya as their new head coach. The club began their 2021–22 Calcutta Premier Division campaign with a 3–0 defeat against Mohammedan Sporting, and Bhattacharya was succeeded by Saeed Ramon in September. He later managed century-old club

. In 2022, Bhattacharya took charge of

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the four ...

and helped the team clinching gold at the 36th National Games of India, defeating

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South C ...

5–0 in final in Ahmedabad.

Honours

Player

East Bengal * Federation Cup: 1984–85 * Coca Cola Cup: 1985 Bengal *

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state football leagues in India, state-level association football, football competition contested by the L ...

: 1981-82

Manager

East Bengal *

: 2015–16 Mohammedan Sporting *

: 2018 * Bodoland Martyrs Gold Cup: 2018 *

Darjeeling Gold Cup All India Darjeeling Gold Cup, also known as All India Brigade of Gorkha's Gold Cup Football Tournament, or simply GTA Chairman's Gold Cup, is an Indian association football tournament held in Darjeeling and organized by the Indian Darjeeling Go ...

runner-up: 2018 Paro * Bhutan Premier League:

2019 File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...

Jigme Dorji Wangchuk Memorial Gold Cup The Jigme Dorji Wangchuk Memorial Gold Cup (formerly known as King's Cup) is an international football club tournament held in Bhutan. The inaugural edition was held in 2004, replacing the ''Federation Cup'' which was last played in 2002, which i ...

: 2019 West Bengal * National Games Gold medal:

2022 File:2022 collage V1.png, Clockwise, from top left: Road junction at Yamato-Saidaiji Station several hours after the assassination of Shinzo Abe; Anti-government protest in Sri Lanka in front of the Presidential Secretariat; The global monkeyp ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bhattacharya, Biswajit Living people Indian footballers East Bengal Club players Indian football managers Indian football coaches India international footballers 1984 AFC Asian Cup players Footballers from Kolkata I-League managers Mohun Bagan AC managers East Bengal Club managers Calcutta Football League players Footballers at the 1982 Asian Games Footballers at the 1986 Asian Games 1964 births Association football forwards Asian Games competitors for India Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) managers