Samar Banerjee, who captained India to a fourth-place finish in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics, is no more. The 92-year-old footballer was admitted to a city hospital with age-related complications on July 27. His condition kept deteriorating as he contracted COVID-19 and breathed his last in the early hours of Saturday.
Widely known by his nickname ‘Badru’, he was greatly revered by all generations of footballers and supporters for his amiable nature. Born on January 30, 1930, Badru started his career with Milan Samity before joining Bally Protiva, a club in his native town in Howrah district.
Badru’s skill as a forward came to be widely appreciated and he joined Mohun Bagan in 1952, after a brief stint with the famous Bengal-Nagpur Railway Football Club. He was also brilliant in studies and enrolled as a student of medicine in a prominent medical college in the city. But he opted to give it up after three years of study for his first love — football.
