East Bengal Club’s Foundation Day Celebration, Team Rumours and more

East Bengal Club celebrated its 103rd foundation day by hosting the club flag and awarded the ‘Bharat Gaurav’ to tennis legend Leander Paes and former Indian women’s cricket captain Jhulan Goswami. Keeping in mind the Pandemic Situation, club officials have decided that Foundation Day of East Bengal Club will not be celebrated in the grand way which happens every year.

East Bengal Club had constituted the ‘Bharat Gourav Award’ in 2011 to honour outstanding sports personalities who had made India proud in the field of sports. “I grew up savouring the great legacy of sport represented by names like East Bengal and Mohun Bagan and the honour accorded to me by East Bengal makes the bond with the city even stronger,” Leander said after accepting the award. Jhulan Goswami called herself a big Red and Gold fan and said the award was a big acknowledgement of what she achieved as a cricketer.

The club also felicitated its stalwarts and former captains Gautam Sarkar and Swapan Sengupta with lifetime achievement awards. The foundation day celebration became important for East Bengal fans as the programme was attended by two directors – Aditya Agarwal and Manish Goenka – of the club’s new investor, the Emami Group.

East Bengal Team For Upcoming Season

The last two seasons have been no less than a nightmare for the Red & Gold Brigade. Two consecutive seasons saw them take ninth and eleventh place on the ISL table. This season, Stephen Constantine has comparatively sufficient time to bag quality players. He knows the country’s talent as well. Also, his long career provides enough reason to rely on him to build a balanced squad.

Amarjit Singh Kiyam has extended his loan deal with East Bengal for another year. He arrived in Kolkata on July 30 and will appear for a medical test. Souvik Das is now part of East Bengal. A source close to the development confirmed that he has signed a two-year deal with the club.

Emami East Bengal FC is in advanced talks to sign 30-year-old striker VP Suhair on a three-year deal. Personal terms between the club and the player have been agreed and Suhair will be receiving an annual salary of more than 1.5 crores. Lalchungnunga Had already joined the club on loan from Sreenidi Deccan. Deal with Aniket and Naorem Mahesh is already done. Naorem Mahesh joins the club from Kerala Blasters on a two-year deal.

This the management believes is affecting their recruitment process and that they should sign quality foreigners as soon as possible due to the dearth of top Indian players currently present. With the other ISL teams having already bolstered their squads by signing Indian as well as foreign players, East Bengal are lagging behind since the deal is yet to be sealed.

East Bengal and Emami to sign the agreement today

East Bengal Club and the Kolkata-based Emami Group will be signing the agreement on August 2 according to a media release by the Emami media team. After a significant delay from the date of the announcement, the agreement will be finally signed putting to rest speculations of the agreement falling through. This move will significantly increase East Bengal’s chances of playing in the upcoming season of the Indian Super League.

Football around the world is built on long-term projects. The Red & Golds have the potential. They were one of the pioneers in introducing the sponsorship concept in Kolkata Maidan. They have decent infrastructure at the Maidan tent too. Stephen Constantine should aim to make full use of it.