Gearing up for the World Cup

FIFA World Cup ‘2026 is just a few days away. The WC fever has started to rise among all the football freaks surely. “The greatest show on Earth” is going to be a grand festival this time indeed spanning about one-and-half months.

FIFA has recently launched the official theme song ‘Dai Dai’ for this WC. It’s a rocking score sung yet again by the Latina sensation Shakira, this time partnered with popular Nigerian artist Burna Roy. Shakira has actually set a record to be playing the same role for the fourth time after ‘2006, ‘2010 and ‘2014 editions. Let’s enjoy the number.

By the way, dear Mariners across the globe, please do visit our special  “World Cup ‘2026 corner” section of this site only.

31st May: A red-letter day in Mohun Bagan’s history

11 years back, it was a night to cherish forever for every Mohun Bagan fan across the globe. The golden moment of the Bello Rasaq’s header cuddling into the net will continue to resonate in every mariner’s heart. Let’s immerse ourselves into that dream-comes-true aura for one more time.

 

After a long wait of 13 years draught, finally the redemption was accomplished with that header sealing the all necessary 1-1 draw against BFC at their backyard only. The national club of India were again crowned the national football champions. History rewritten!!!

 

Throwback ‘1962: The first ever play-off between two Indian teams

The 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and even the 80’s saw the ‘boro-match’ (now derby) raising the barometer of the football mania to the next level. Football in India was then a different game altogether. India finishing 4th in the Olympics, winning the Asiad gold, club teams beating the foreign teams on their soil … The clubs not letting their players go for the national duty was not very much in practice then. 

The year 1962 – a glorious year indeed in Indian football history – India went on to rock the Djakarta Asian Games. Meanwhile, the Calcutta Football League (CFL), which had a distinguished aura those days, was in full swing. The title contention went down to a wire, both the Calcutta giants finishing with same points (40) from 28 matches in the hard-fought double-leg league of 15 teams. However, Mohun Bagan had much better GD (+29) than their counterparts (+19), East Bengal having better head-to-head tally though owing to the solitary goal win in the 1st leg and a goalless draw in the 2nd leg. As per the laws of the tournament, both the sides had to lock horns again for a play-off final, and it was the first-of-its-kind too.

Bagan missed the services of the legendary Chuni Goswami (skipper), Jarnail Singh, Pradyut Burman and Arumai Naigam. But the remaining squad played their hearts out at the jam-packed Calcutta Ground on Aug 23, ‘1962. Mohun Bagan earned a convincing win (2-0) by virtue of the brace scored by the brilliant Mangal Purakayastha (featured). It was 10th CFL title for the Mariners, and more significantly, Indian national football team went on to clinch the gold medal just 11 days later. 

Now let’s have a glimpse of the ‘1962 CFL champion Mohun Bagan team. 

Pic courtesy: Jugantar

(for detailed match report vide the Mariners’ Trivia Zone page of this site)