The ‘football king’ or the ‘black pearl’ Pele, widely regarded brought Calcutta (now Kolkata), the Mecca of Indian football to a standstill on September 24, 1977, exactly 48 years ago on this day. It was a grand historic moment when the Brazilian icon Pele visited India for the first time to play a friendly at the Eden Gardens for his then club New York Cosmos against our Mohun Bagan. Pele, who had already won 3 world cups for Brazil, was in the twilight of his career at 38. Still his mere presence on the slushy pitch was once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for the Calcutta people to witness the immortal legend in action on Indian soil, all credit to the legendary Shri Dhiren Dey, the then Secretary of Mohun Bagan, who showed his guts and caliber to organise such a big event.
Understandably, every corner of the ground was jam-packed with above 80,000 odd crowd and the tickets were very hard to buy. The PK Banerjee-coached Mariners not only stopped Pele from scoring a goal, but almost won 2-1 before a controversial penalty made it a 2-2 draw against the star-studded New York Cosmos. Md. Habib and Shyam Thapa were the scorers for the national club. The thriller ‘Pele show’ not only recooked up the Bengal’s tryst with the ‘beautiful game’, but also escalated Mohun Bagan’s spirit to go on to win triple crown (IFA Shield, Durand Cup and Rovers Cup) that season (‘1977-78) for the first time in club’s history under the able captaincy of Subrata Bhattacharya, aka Bablu da. Prior to that, the club’s moral was upset with the surprising defeats in the CFL derby and the Federation Cup final, even having a star-studded side.
The Bagan soldiers fought bravely to hold on world class Cosmos side, with Pele, Carlos Alberto, Chinaglia, etc, to a draw and made our nation proud. So Pele’s visit obviously has left an indelible mark on Kolkata’s and India’s football history and the match will be cherished by the Bagan fans forever.
Let’s catch up some of the glimpses of the match here to feel the aura.
