Sudeep Pakrashi:
President of Kalighat Milan Sangha, Ajit Banerjee, is expecting Kalighat MS to secure a berth in the ‘Super-Six’ of the CFL Premier Division this season.
The team that failed to qualify for the ‘Super-Six’ last season will start their campaign in the CFL Premier Division on June 30th against Suruchi Sangha.
The president when asked about the preparation, revealed, “One key reason behind the team’s failures to qualify for the ‘Super-Six’ last season was the injuries of several key footballers. That is why, our new coach Dipankar Biswas took the initiative to organize a thorough fitness training program, inviting a professional fitness trainer Chiranjit Malakar and the team had undergone an extensive fitness training program for almost one month before the start of training with ball.”
The club has also appointed former India international Amit Bhadra as the Technical Director. Banerjee stated, “I am sure Bhadra’s huge experience as a footballer and his ability to motivate the youngsters will add confidence to the boys and coach also.”
Out of the 32 recruited footballers this season, Kalighat MS has 25 Bengalis while seven have been roped in from our states. Amidst the seven outstation footballers, coach Dipankar Biswas while commenting on the preparation, revealed, “We have one midfielder Vidyanand Singh who has experience playing in the ISL. He should play an instrumental role. We also have a striker named Debdatt who was the top scorer in the Kerala league last season. He is promising, a perfect box-striker. Along with them, we have a few promising local footballers who looked impressive also in the preparatory matches we played so far.”
However, Biswas strongly objected to the rule set by IFA for the CFL Premier Division of playing six ‘son-of-the-soils’ mandatorily. “In the last CFL premier Division IFA set the rule of playing four ‘son-of-the-soils’ players in the league mandatorily and Bengal won Santosh Trophy. So, if you explore properly, and nurture them properly, you will have quality footballers. You need not impose rules on your own footballers.”
