KOLKATA: Parimal Dey was a quintessential crowd-puller in the Maidan during the 1960s, who with a cherubic face was famous for bringing the house down with his balance, vision and outrageous skills. For the older generation of East Bengal faithful, he was the red-and-gold team's answer to Mohun Bagan's Chuni Goswami — the two poster boys of the time who literally brought beauty to the game when India was still hailed as a powerhouse in Asian football and beyond.
Yet, if playing for the country is a yardstick for measuring one's bearing, Dey's contribution to the national team was barely limited to five matches. All those matches came in 1966 when he scored a goal in the bronze medal playoff against South Korea in the Merdeka Cup in Kuala Lumpur and took part in the Asian Games in Bangkok. Many believed that he was a victim of politics involving two of the leading football administrators of the time — East Bengal secretary Jyotish Chandra Guha and AIFF boss Manindra Dutta Ray (better known as Bechu Dutta Roy) — which prematurely cut short his association with the national team.
