Kolkata: Indian football legend Pradeep Kumar Banerjee is celebrating his 81st birthday today. The prolific goalscorer and one of the most successful coaches in Indian football will be remembered as all time greats in Indian football history. Here goes the top five moments and achievements of his international career, for which he will be remembered as India’s one of the all time greats.
1955 Dhaka Quadrangular Cup: P.K. Banerjee made his presence felt in his very first appearance for the Indian National Football Team in the 1955 Dhaka Quadrangular, Cup, where he became the highest goalscorer with five goals. Indian football had a kid on the block who showed the glimpses of carrying the football pride of the nation.
1956 Melbourne Olympics: The biggest success in the history of Indian football. Badru Banerjee’s leadership helped India to qualify for the epic semi final where they ended up losing the battle in the last four. PK Banerjee was a significant member of that Indian football team. Since then he continued playing for the national team in all the events for almost twelve consecutive years.
1960 Rome Olympics: P.K. Banerjee became the Captain for the first time of the national team and the achievement became even more special as he never played for any top Indian club in his playing career. He played outstandingly well for India and showed the world what Indian football is capable of.
1962 Asian Games and 1964 AFC Asia Cup: India won the Asian Games for the first time in 1962 and P.K. Banerjee made a memorable performance in that competition. Though he was not the captain, his performance was simply incredible throughout the competition.
India finished as Runners-up in the 1964 AFC Asia Cup. That was the best performance for India in the history of the competition. P.K. Banerjee’s heroic performance was instrumental in India’s success and was applauded by all the teams.
Records: P.K. Banerjee scored the maximum number of goals for India in the history of the Asian Games. Another special record which the legend carries is that he won a medal both as a player and a coach respectively in the year 1962 and 1970 as India won Gold in 1962 and Bronze in 1970.
(Statistics provided by famous statistician Hariprasad Chattopadhyay)