The All India Football Federation has declared June 23, the birthday of Indian football icon Pradip Kumar Banerjee, as the ‘AIFF Grassroots Day’, the sport’s apex body said on May 12 .
Popularly known as P.K., the late Mr. Banerjee captained the Indian team in the 1960 Rome Olympics and enjoyed a stellar career as a player before taking up coaching, where he also tasted plenty of success.
Explaining the reason behind choosing P.K.’s birthday, AIFF secretary general Shaji Prabhakaran said, “We often forget Pradip da was a teacher par excellence too. Once he hung up his boots, he took up coaching and for the next 30 years, produced an array of players, who excelled at the national and international levels.
