This week Mohun Bagan Celebrates the birthdays of legends. It kicked off with the birthday of The Footballer of the Century and ends with the birthday of the screen god of generations of Bengalis.
Padmashree Sailendra Nath Manna, Jose Ramirez Barreto and the Late Arun Kumar Chatterjee better known as Uttam Kumar.

In this one week, Mohun Bagan celebrates the birthdays of legends who have served and supported this institution. It is really a pantheon of legends. The week started with the birthday of Padmashree Sailendra Nath Manna on the 1st, the legend who personifies everything Mohun Bagan stands for. His list of awards would takes days to roll out, but to name a few, they are:

1.Included in the list of the 10 best Captains of the world by English FA in 1953.

2. Awarded Padmashree in 1971 by the Government of India.

3. Awarded the "Footballer of the Millennium" by All India Football Federation in 2000.

4. Awarded "Mohun Bagan Ratna" in 2001.

Today is the birthday of J.R. Barreto and the Late Uttam Kumar. A player and an actor, both par excellence in their respective fields of work and both die hard supporters of our club. It would be exetremely difficult for anyone to write about either of them, for they are legends in their own fields.

Like the great Sailen Manna, they exemplify the virtues which makes Mohun Bagan the institution it is today.

 The grace and dignity they exude can rarely be matched and the whole team of MohunBaganClub.Com bows to them and prays to god for the health and happiness of Sri Sailen Manna and Jose Barreto and also prays for the soul of the Late Uttam Kumar.

Mohun Bagan drew with Mohammedan Sporting 1-1 in a Premier Division Match of CFL held in Salt Lake Stadium. Mohammedan went ahead via a debatable penalty in 44th minute and Mariners leveled in injury time of 2nd half via Habibur. This is Habibur’s 2nd goal in as many matches.Mohun Bagan now have 24 points from 11 matches and will play their next match against Port Trust.

Mohun Bagan started the match without Baichung, Lalampuia, Ishfaq and Branco in their lineup and injured Barreto in reserve bench. With Tulunga and Kartick in attacking front, Bagan pressed from start and Kartick with his down the line run in left flank often caused panic in Mohammedan defence. Within minutes, Lalramlua centered from right and Kartick stretched to meet the ball but just could not connect the ball. In Mohun Bagan midfield, Lalkamal was not in the first team and in his absence Junior James, Lalramlua and Rakesh Masih took a huge load and continued attacking. Though Junior James played much better football than previous matches, he missed an easy chance when from Kartick’s center he got an loose ball inside box but fumbled with the ball and missed an golden opportunity. Kartick also missed an easy chance when a back head from Sporting defender reached him but he could not capitalize on the opportunity. Against run of play from a counter attack Sporting got a penalty when Theo fell inside box while trapping the ball, Mohanraj was with him and there was no such push that penalty was to be given, linesman was close to the incident and he did not raise the flag whereas referee was in center circle and he blew his whistle from such distance. Theo convered the penalty in 44th minute.

In 2nd half, Barreto and Rino Anto replaced Tapan Maity and Mohanraj and Bagan attacked more for equalizer. In 2nd minute, from a Junior James free kick, Habibur headed the ball nicely but Mohammedan goalkeeper made a brilliant save. Mohammedan got one easy chance but Rino Anto came as a savior when his brilliant intervention saved the day for Bagan. However, in the last minute from a free kick by Lalkamal, Barreto headed beautifully on to the far post where Habibur stretched fully and guided the ball in with his right foot, a brilliant attempt indeed from Habibur.

TEAM: Sangram, Habibur, Deepak, Peter Odafe, Mohanraj (Rino Anto 46), Lalramlua, Junior James Singh (Lalkamal 66), Rakesh Masih, Tapan Maity (Barreto 46), Kartick Kisku, Tulunga.

Mohun Bagan team had a two and a half hour practice session today morning under coach Kareem. Meanwhile, Under 12 team is leaving for Haridwar for residential camp tomorrow under coach Amiya Ghosh, they will then participate in a tournament in Delhi, thanks to Mr. Sukanta Das for arranging the camp. The team will fly for Paris to participate in the Yakult Danone Cup on September 2. Meanwhile, there will be a Special General Meeting held in club premises tomorrow for passing of audited accounts of 2006-07 and appointing auditors for auditing accounts of 2007-08 and fixing their remuneration.

Today in practice, there was match practice and even coach, assistant coach and goalkeeper coach participated in the match. Every player seemed to enjoy the practice. When asst coach Satyajit scored a brilliant goal, Manju was seen shouting "sign him, sign him", such was the mood in the practice. Kareem was also strict when required like when Chirodeep conceded a bad goal, Kareem yelled at him "Remember you are the goalkeeper of Mohun Bagan, you were not standing in the right position." Shilton was injured during the practice when he tried to save a shot from Satyajit and fractured his small finger of his left hand. Deepak is almost fit now and coach told that he might play Deepak in next match depending on situation and requirement of team. Kareem is happy that Mohun Bagan’s match has been postponed by few days as few players have minor injuries and will get time to heal. Barreto was seen in gym and he did not participate in the match, he is completely fit. When asked if he wants more time for practice before I league starts (it is scheduled to start in mid September), coach told that if he does not get any time after Kolkata league, he will not be unhappy as he is taking Kolkata league to prepare his team for I-league and he will have no complaints if he does not get time for camp before I league. He told that match practice is very much required and he is getting that here in this tournament.