1. Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya was a former Indian footballer who represented and captained the India national football team and Mohun Bagan, a football club in Kolkata.
14 Facts About Karuna Bhattacharya
1. 2.
The Karuna Bhattacharya Award is given to the best player of Mohun Bagan in every season.
3.
Karuna Bhattacharya was the first captain of the India national football team during their first officially recognised match in the international tour of Australia against the Australia national football team in 1938.
4.
Karuna Bhattacharya played alongside Gostha Pal, Syed Abdus Samad, Umapati Kumar, Balaidas Chatterjee, Sanmatha Dutta, Bimal Mukherjee, R Lumsden, Satu Chowdhury, and many others during that time.
5.
Karuna Bhattacharya was scouted by Dukhiram Majumder in Berhampur, and was signed by Aryan in 1928.
6.
Karuna Bhattacharya was one of the most vital players in the team when Mohun Bagan won their first ever league title, winning the Calcutta Football League in 1939.
7.
Karuna Bhattacharya played few exhibition matches in Bangladesh with IFA XI in 1930.
8.
In July 1938, Karuna Bhattacharya went on to play an international charity match against an 'all European team' in Calcutta, where they were defeated by a solitary goal.
9.
Karuna Bhattacharya was the captain of the Indian team, managed by Pankaj Gupta, that went to Australia in 1938 after the invitation from Australian Football Association.
10.
Karuna Bhattacharya was one of the stars during the Australia tour, scoring a brace against Queensland and the Australia National Team.
11.
Karuna Bhattacharya was part of the Indian team that played against the Olympic team of China in 1936.
12.
Karuna Bhattacharya was part of several Indians vs Europeans football matches from 1931 to 1939.
13.
Karuna Bhattacharya was part of the IFA XI side that went to Ceylon and South Africa tour in 1933 and 1934 respectively.
14.
Karuna Bhattacharya later became manager of the "green and maroon brigade" in several tournaments including their tour of Indonesia in 1956, tour of East Africa in 1961, and tour of Sri Lanka in 1968.