Sudeep Pakrashi:
Under his guidance, Gukulam Kerala FC won the elite IWL twice. In his third year of the elite IWL title with East Bengal, Anthony Andrews is finally getting recognition officially.
The 29-year-old coach, under whose guidance East Bengal women clinched the elite IWL title in 2024-25, is set to be honored with the ‘Best Coach’s award, named after the late legendary PK Banerjee, jointly with Sanjoy Sen, by East Bengal on the club’s foundation day, August 1.
Anthony is excited to receive the award named after the legendary PK Banerjee. He did not have the opportunity to see the legendary coach. But he has gone through a lot of insights about Banerjee’s coaching and success, and he has reportedly found a similarity that late PK Banerjee was a master in tuning the star-studded teams to guide them to achieve laurels.
East Bengal women’s team also had a star-studded team, consisting of six to seven national footballers and foreign footballers. Anthony believes the task was not quite easy to create a harmony that built up the spirit of the team.
The coach wants to dedicate the award to the players, his coaching staff, the club management, and his family. He believes he could not have had the taste of success in the IWL as well as the state league, Kanyasree Cup, without the help of those individuals who supported him in his effort.
Anthony believes any award should inspire the respective individual to progress with the respective activities, and the coach is now looking forward to East Bengal’s maiden participation in the AFC Challenge Cup this year.
