
Tanbir Dey, BFA’s prolific striker etched his name in Indian football’s statistics, scoring 24 goals including both competitions, winning the 'Player of the Tournament' award in RFDL
Considering the diagram of Indian football, Bengal Football Academy (BFA), run by the state sports ministry, has started shining after a gap of 11 years it started the journey.
The academy boys, superseding the country's fancied teams like East Bengal, and Mohammedan Sporting, have earned qualification for the AIFF Under-17 Youth League for the first time, although they qualified for the main round in the AIFF Under-15 Youth League twice on previous occasions.
Simultaneously, BFA exhibited a splendid show in the Reliance Foundation Development League (RFDL) being unbeaten in 11 consecutive matches in the regional phase.

Tanbir Dey, BFA’s prolific striker etched his name in Indian football’s statistics, scoring 24 goals including both competitions, winning the 'Player of the Tournament' award in RFDL, and also top scorer in the AIFF Youth League with 12 goals including a double hat-trick against East Bengal in their home and away matches.
Tanbir terms his goals against East Bengal as his most cherished so far. "The performance in RFDL and Youth League is encouraging. I am looking forward to maintain the consistency in upcoming tournaments."
BFA’s newly-appointed chief coach Shyam Manik Lodh who was Chief Coach of SAI for 25 years and also a coaches' educator at SAI and AIFF, commented on the team's success, "After joining the BFA last month I observed the boys have potential. They only needed to improve their technique and physical strength. Otherwise, they will have difficulty to perform at the highest level."
The coach added, “I did not have enough time before the competitions. So what I did was to improve their confidence. The videos of their matches were recorded and during the recovery period, the boys were shown those videos. Additionally, the schedule was too hectic.”

"We had to play both RFDL and AIFF Youth League at the same time. The boys participated in six matches within a gap of eight days! Still, they were able to maintain the consistency. I am thankful to them."
The academy’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Deep Krishna Hazra, happy with the progress feels that now the time has come for the academy boys to enter mainstream football. Plans are being developed to take part in the Kolkata Football League and the I-League Third Division in the near future.
Hazra explained, "Now, with the gradual progress of the boys' performance I can submit proposals to the Sports Minister regarding BFA's participation in the CFL and then I-League Third Division. In that case, the budget will automatically increase and if the sports ministry sanctions the budget then we can introduce ourselves as a professional football team.”

He continued, “There were nearly 20 boys when BFA started 11 years ago. Now we have 155 boys including all-age groups and if we can settle down as a professional football team then it will also inspire our junior batches."
"They can feel that they do not need to wait for offers from other professional clubs. Rather they can continue with us as contracted footballers.”
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