KOLKATA: India lost another Olympian son as Samar Banerjee passed away at a city hospital in the early hours of Saturday after a prolonged age-related illness. He was 92. Better known as ‘Badru’ Banerjee in Indian football, the striker was best remembered for leading the country to a historic fourth-place finish in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Born on January 30, 1930, Banerjee began his footballing journey with a local club in Bally at the age of 18. However, it did not take much time for the news of his talent to travel to Kolkata.
He made his Maidan debut for the Bengal Nagpur Railway Club from where the youngster was soon roped in by Mohun Bagan in 1952. It was for football that Banerjee, a student of the RG Kar Medical College then, left his studies midway to take up the game which was not a viable career option at that time.
In a way Banerjee carried forward the dreams of his elder brother who wanted to be a footballer but met with an untimely death.
Besides guiding Mohun Bagan to several trophies, including their first-ever Durand Cup (1953) and Rovers Cup (1955), Banerjee also won the Santosh Trophy twice as a player (1953, 1955) and once as a coach (1962). He played for Bagan for nine years and was named the captain in 1958. He also worked as the national selector after his retirement.
Banerjee made an instant impact winning the IFA Shield in his debut season with the green-andmaroon brigade and was instrumental in guiding the club to its first double with the CFL and IFA Shield titles in 1954.
Banerjee led the star-studded Indian side of PK Banerjee, Chuni Goswami, Tulsidas Balaram, Neville D’Souza, J ‘Kittu’ Krishnaswamy and others to Melbourne. Having got a walkover in the first round, the Syed Abdul Rahim coached side thrashed Australia 4-2. But they failed to make the final, going down 1-4 to Yugoslavia in the last-four stage. Till date this remains India’s best show at the Olympics.
The only surviving member of that squad, Balaram was shocked.
“My captain has now left me alone. I’m so lonely out here now,” the 86- year-old said.
Banerjee used to love sharing the story of how he met the then Bengali actor Tapati Ghosh in Puri and got married after a brief courtship. However, Banerjee went through personal tragedies with the passing away of wife and then their son too.
Banerjee was conferred the Mohun Bagan Ratna in 2009 and Banga Bhushan in 2017.
