Former India footballer and coach Subhas Bhowmick dead

New Delhi: Former India footballer and coach Subhash Bhowmik passed away on Saturday morning after undergoing diabetes and kidney related treatment at a private hospital in Ekbalpur, South Kolkata for the past two weeks. He was 72.

Suffering from diabetes and kidney disease since a long time, Bhownik’s health started deteriorating on Saturday and breathed his last at 3.30am IST.

Popularly known as ‘Bhombol da’ in Kolkata, Bhowmik was a successful footballer as well as coach. He was a part of the Indian team that won a bronze medal in 1970 Asian Games.

Subhash won a total of 26 trophies in his club career – 18 in Mohun Bagan itself. Subhash scored a total of 82 goals for Mohun Bagan in six years including four hat-tricks.

He also scored 83 goals in five years for East Bengal.

His best two years in terms of number of goals were 1970 and 1986. He scored 27 goals in 1970 and 19 in 1986. Bhowmik earned the name of ‘bulldozer’ in Kolkata maidans because of his goal-getting capacity.

After a successful career as footballer, he started his second innings as coach. He helped East Bengal claim the ASEAN Club Cup.

As a coach and a former attacking midfielder, he never believed in the modern ‘false nine’ style of playing football. He instead encouraged the classical attacking style and coached several players who later played for the country.

His contemporary footballer Shyam Thapa said, “He was total footballer. He never got nervous before a match. He always cheered us up and always faced challenges.”