Gostha Pal

Gostha Pal
Personal information
Full name Gostha Behari Pal
Date of birth (1896-08-20)20 August 1896
Place of birth Faridpore, Bengal Presidency, India
Date of death 8 April 1976(1976-04-08) (aged 79)
Place of death Kolkata, West Bengal, India
Playing position Defender
Senior career*
Years Team Apps† (Gls)†
1907-1912 Kumartuli A.C., Kolkata ? (?)
1912-1936 Mohun Bagan ? (?)
National team
? – ? India ? (?)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only.

† Appearances (goals)

Gostha Behari Pal (August 20, 1896 – April 8, 1976) (Bengali: গোষ্ঠ পাল) was an Indian professional football player.

Personal life

He was born in Bhojeswar, Faridpore, Bengal Presidency (currently located in Bangladesh). He moved to Kolkata when he was an infant and lived there till his very last days.

Football career

Nicknamed as "Chiner Pracheer" (The Wall of China) he was one of the best defenders of contemporary Indian football. He started playing for Kumartuli A.C. aged 11, and joined Mohun Bagan at the age of 16. In 1921, Gostho Paul was honored with the captaincy of the Mohun Bagan football team, and he remained as the club captain for next 5 years. In 1924, he was also appointed as the captain of the Indian national football team. He retired in 1935.[1]

He was the first Indian footballer to be honoured with the Padma Shri, on April 27, 1962. (The second was Sailen Manna in 1970).[2]

Legacy

A statue was erected In his memory in 1984 on the Gostho Paul Sarani [3] in Kolkata.

Professional awards

Mohun Bagan awarded him the Mohun Bagan Ratna posthumously, which is given to former greats of that club, in 2004. An archive was launched in his honour and named the Gostho Paul Archive, inside the Mohun Bagan club premises.

Notes

  1. ↑ "Gostho Pal: The Chinese Wall of Indian Football". Live Indian Football.
  2. ↑ India's greatest footballer (about Sailen Manna), SportsStar, The Hindu, April 15, 2006
  3. ↑ "People forgetting Gostha Paul: Son". The Times of India. Retrieved 22 January 2016.

External links

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