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Tuesday, July 31, 2007

All set to begin CFL campaign

Tommorrow Bagan kick off their 2007-08 CFL against George Telegraph in their home ground! The probable 11
  1. Sangram Mukherjee
  2. Shubhashish Roychoudhury
  3. Habibur Rahman
  4. Peter Siddiqi
  5. Suman Dutta
  6. Dharamjit
  7. Venkatesh
  8. Lalkamal Bhowmick
  9. Rauf Khan
  10. Barreto
  11. Isfaq Ahmed(Lalampuia)

On asked about the match, Pahira commented that he is confident about it and he believes that Mohun Bagan should win all the home matches otherwise it would be dificult. Barreto confessed that this jersey has always been special to him, so he will try to give his best.

plz chek the section "Match Corner" for further details and match update links!

Monday, July 30, 2007

Barreto to pair with Lalam, 3 players sign!

Today Barreto along with Venkatesh and Ishfaq signed for Bagan in the IFA office.
Asked about the upcoming match, Pahira said that he would not want Barreto to play as a withdrawn striker, instead he is all set to pair with Lalampuia, the rising star of Bagan for the 1st match against George Telegraph. Pahira has chalked out the 4-4-2 strategy for Bagan with Habibur and Peter Siddique at the back. Pahira said that he is confident about the team's performance and hopes to start off the season with 3 points.
picture: Soumyadeb SInha

Celebration!

The celebration of the Mohun Bagan Day was a success today at the club ground with a huge turn up of Bagan fans! The Bagan mascot as planned earlier was officially launched and given a name by Budhadev Guha. Named "Baggu" the Bagan Mascot is the first of its kind in Indian football. Amongst the programme of the day, lot of musical performances were on show, and two football matches. However an important incident was the presentation of the Mohun Bagan Ratna to Dhiren dey, on whose behalf his nephew received the honour! Bagan play their opening match for against George on the 1st in MB ground itself.

Sunday, July 29, 2007

Happy Mohun Bagan Day!

The photo of the "Legendary 11"
118 years from today Bagan was at the threshold of entering into the Indian history books when being the first Indian club team they went in to play against the superior East Yorkshire Regiment in the 1911 IFA shield cup tie. But after those fateful 70 mins Bagan Captain Sibdas Bhaduri ensured that Mohun Bagan's name would be enscribed with golden letters in the pages of not only Indian history but also in the history of World football. 1911 was the year, and 29th July was the date and the teams fighting it out for the title of IFA shield Champion were Mohun Bagan and East Yorkshire. East Yorkshire drew first blood but soon enough Bagan equalised. A deadlock prevailed and just before 2mins of regulation time, Bagan skipper Shibdas Bhaduri pulled off a rabbit from his hat and gave Bagan the winner!
Mohun Bagan were the First Indian Team to win the IFA shield, a group of barefooted footballers made the English side eat dirt.
To commemorate this stupendous feet, it was decided that 29th of July would be celebrated as Mohun Bagan Day and Bagan's birthday being 15th of August!
HAPPY MOHUN BAGAN DAY TO ALL!!
The club ground has been decorated and members have started to pour in from morning itself.
It is yet again a success!
Long Live Bagan!

Friday, July 27, 2007

Team returns! Gafari in NFL!

Today morning the team bus from Durgapur pulled up at the club gate and slowly Bagan players emerged in a energetic mood though the weather had done its part to dampen the spirits! The team returned today from Durgapar where it had gone for a two week long pre-season camp.
The Bagan coach, on being asked about the condition of the team, said that the players are 40 percent conditioned and he has not yet worked on any combinations or as such with the team. He also assured the Bagan fans that they will see Barreto in action from the very first match.
Though the coach assured Barreto's pressence from the first match, speaking to him personally, he confided that he is not 100 percent fit and might take him two to three matches to get into shape, thus he would preffer a two-match delay in his appearance.
On being asked about Bhutia's success in the international circuit with 4 goals in 3 matches in the ongoing Indian's tour of Portugal, both Coach and Barreto seemed elated. To quote Barreto, "Bhutia has always been a good player...it is good for football and good for us."
The coach however on a more comic tone remarked, "He(Bhutia) shouldn't score all his goals there...he will get plenty of opportunities here."
On another developement, club officials got in contact with Gafari and asked him to come to India to have a talk with the Bagan officials. At first he had been selected for the CFL but with the coming of Odafe and Barreto, Gafari might play in the NFL.

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Peter Odafe for Bagan

Peter Odafe is the Nigerian defender who will play for Bagan as the second foreigner in the CFL. It is reported that the club officials had already decided beforehand that Peter would join Bagan for CFL. Meanwhile, Club Secretary Anjan Mitra besides the launching of the club Mascot is also hoping to launch the first ever theme song for Bagan. On this issue he said that he has had a talk with the famous bollywould and tollywood music director, our very own Bappi da(Bapi Lahiri).

New Bagan Mascot!

Photo: Soumyadeb Sinha For the first time in India, a football club will have a mascot and no wonder this innovative step in Indian football will be taken by Mohun Bagan AC. It is a Royal Bengal tiger and as the Club Secretary Anjan Mitra pointed out that the Royal Bengal Tiger had been the symbol of MAC back in the early 20th century and since the Royal Bengal Tiger is also the symbol of Bengal, Mohun Bagan being the first club of Bengal to get a mascot chose the animal! The club officials have not yet decided upon the name of the Mascot and plan to officially launch the same on the Mohun Bagan day(29th July). The mascot being a Royal Bengal Tiger is befitting the club in an other way too! The National Beast of India for the National Club of India! The mascot is supposed to be present in the ground in a number of 3-4 on each match cheering the team and encouraging the crowd! Watch CNN IBN's report on BAGGU

Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Nigerian defender as a probable 2nd foreigner

It is reported that with the unavailibilty of Adebayo in the CFL, Mohun Bagan officials have now turned their attention towards a 'successful' Nigerian defender who plays in Bangladesh. Last time Mohun Bagan signed a player playing in Bangladesh was Ibrahim two years ago who had managed to score only one goal through the NFL though televiewrs were impressed by his skills and ball controll.

Monday, July 23, 2007

Player of Indian origin from Mauritius!

A Mauritius footballer of Indian origin named Sewram Gobin, has come to Bagan for trial!It is reported that under the initiative of the Premier Fan site of MAC he has come in contact with the club. Tommorow he is supposed to join Pahira and team at Durgapur where his trial begins. Gobin who is 24yrs of age is an attacking Medio, plays for Savanne FC, Mauritius as per sources. In the mean time, the club officials have taken up in full swing the preparation for the Celebration Mohun Bagan Day to be held on 29th of July at the Club Ground! P.s- MB did not return to Kolkata yesterday(as earlier reported), their Camp at Durgapur is scheduled till the 28th of July. scource: mohunbaganclub.com website

Sunday, July 22, 2007

Solitary goal saves Bagan from blushes!

file photo
Bagan today in their 1st match this season which happened to be a practice match before they begin the CFL this season, against Purulia XI ended with a solitary goal from Bagan to save them from a disappointing goalless draw.

Ishfaq Ahmed, the striker who signed in from Dempo this year, scored the only goal within 5mins from the kick off and through out the rest of the match not many chances were created by either of the teams. Non of the Premier division players were fielded for Bagan, instead a young and unexperienced Bagan side played out a hard fought match against the Purulia XI. It is however reported that the Bagan team bus met with an accident while on their way to the ground, and as a result reached the ground 2hours late than the schedule time. The bus driver was the only person injured while others went unscathed.

Friday, July 20, 2007

Barreto to Join Bagan Practice shortly!

The brazillian ace Jose Ramirez Barreto is reported to have landed in Kolkata today morning. He is expected to join Pahira's pre-season campaign at Durgapur by tommorrow. Yesterday much anxiety had built up at the Bagan Camp when fellow Brazillian coach Pahira was informed that an Aircraft over Brazil(on Barreto's route) had crashed! However it was later assured that Barreto was not on that flight as the Crash victims' names list didnot have his name. He had went back with his family to Brazil after the Super Cup victory and had initially requested club officials to let him off for the CFL and that he would join the team before the Fed Cup. But following the unavailability of other frontline players like Bhutia, Maria(to name a few) who are at the National camp, its was decided that Barreto would play for Bagan in the CFL. Last season he had begun his campaign for Bagan from the Durand Cup. Last season he scored only 8 goals in all the National tournaments for Bagan. The Tally: Durand Cup: 2 Fed Cup: 1(excluding penalty shootouts) NFL: 5 He should be looking forward to putting up a better show this year.

Wednesday, July 18, 2007

CFL fixture released for the 07-08 season!

Today evening IFA after much talk with the Local Police, released the Fixture for the coming CFL season(07-08). This year the CFL will be played out in two phases. The 1st phase comes to an end on the 31st of August. Mohun Bagan play their opening match against George Telegraph on the 1st of August! other big matches, MB vs EB 17th August, MB vs MS 26th August however, in the 2nd phase, MB vs EB is on the 18th December.

Pre-Season Camp in full swing!

File image of MAC at practice Photo by: Soumyadeb Sinha The pre season camp held at Durgapur is in full swing under the supervision of the two coaches of MAC and MBSFA Coach Carlos Alberto Pahira and Coach Luiz Henrique Ribiero Greco respectively. The Pre-season Camp is planned to last till 28th of July after which on 29th of July is Mohun Bagan Day Celebration which will be held at the club ground!

Monday, July 16, 2007

Pre-Season Camp at Durgapur! 2 players injured!

The pre-season camp seems to have started to a good note as Bagan's new brazilian Coach Carlos Alberto Pahira collaborating with another brazilian Coach Luiz Henrique Ribiero Greco who joined MBSFA from July helped the footballers get in shape before the CFL. "The ground is in excellent condition even though heavy rain occured last evening" to quote a Bagan player and the infrastructure also earned much appreciation from the Bagan players. Coach Luiz Henrique Ribiero Greco and MAC coach Alberto Pahira are of the opinion that given the facilities, within the coming 7yrs India will see stars rising of international standard! However, On the first day of the preseason camp held at Durgapur, Suman Dutta got a nasty cut on his hand and had to be taken to a local hospital to receive a number of stitches. Mean while, During practice, teh Bagan keeper Proloy Dutta hurt his neck. However it is reported that he is no major damage has been done. Photo provided by www.mohunbaganclub.com

News regarding DUDU

DUDU the former Sporting clube de Goa captain who is believed to have had a word with Club president TUTU Bose is reported to have been selected in the trial in Europe. However his stay in Europe may not be a certainty and as speculated, his move to Bagan may be reassured because even though he has passed the selection for a second division European club as a striker, his payroll is not enough to keep him in Europe.

Venkatesh arrives! Bagan leaves for Durgapur!

Finally the Mahindra Utd Mid-fielder Venkatesh who had signed a month earlier along with Manju of Mahindra Utd. arrived today in the city before the Bagan team left for Durgapur to attend a week or two long pre-season camp... Pahira,our coach, after being fully satisfied with the facilities at the Durgapur ground had decided along with Asst coach Satyajit to hold a Pre-season camp at Durgapur.

Pahira's revelation!

A personal talk with Pahira, a day before yesterday at the Practice at the Mohun Bagan ground, revealed that the Brazilian coach, even during his stay at East Bengal FC, always had a latent desire to come to MAC. To quote him, "When I was in East Bengal, even then i wanted to come here." Thus at the end of the 2006-07 season, before leaving Kolkata for his country had a talk with Club officials and thus when given the honour to Coach MAC, did not hesitate to accept the office.

Du and Douglas might move to Chirag United!

Sources from within the Chirag United Sports Club state that former Bagan defender Eduardo Chacon and last year's defensive midfielder Douglas D'Silva might join Chirag Utd Sports Club! Bagan officials had been putting away Edu's name of the possible foreigners list on the ground that he is injured but this news puts the claim of the bagan officials under serious scrutiny. However it is evident that after all these years of faithful and whole hearted service by our bevoled DU to the Mariners, the MB supporters want DU back in their team for the current season in the form of the third foreinger(barreto and dudu being the other two) but it seems the club officials have turned a deaf ear to our demands!

MOHUN BAGAN ATHLETIC CLUB-The National club of India

A Short History:

MOHUN BAGAN AC-The National club of India, the oldest Club in Asia,
was established on 15th August 1889 when India was up in arms against her collonial head, England.

Eversince its establishment the Club had been winning a lot of local leagues and cups but the moment of greatness that surpasses all came in the year 1911 when Mohun Bagan AC became the first Indian club/team to defeat the foreigners in their own game of football.

On 29th of July 1911 Mohun Bagan won the IFA shield beating East Yorkshire 2-1. Eversince there has been no stopping!

The club has won and keeps on winning many a laurel for the country! It has made our Nation Proud!

According to FIFA rankings, in Asia, Mohun Bagan is the 16th biggest team to have an avg. home crowd of 19,888. According to World standards, Mohun Bagan has been ranked of 127 much ahead of other big clubs like Udinese(Italy), Benfica(Portugal) and Fulham(England) to mention a few.

It is however,not an easy task to consolidate the history of a club which is more than 117 years old*...(read more...)

*For Further Info:Please visit The Offical site of MAC: History section please open in a New Window

Location: Kolkata Maidan
Colours:
Green and Maroon
Symbol: Sail Boat

Stadium: Mohun Bagan ground
Yuva Bharati Krirangan

MOHUN BAGAN AC- It's not just a club, it is an institution, a religion, a passion. LIVE IT...DIE FOR IT...

A Pictorial trip of the Mohun Bagan Ground!

Satellite Imagery of our Club Ground!*
*Open in a New Window please.
Images of Yuva Bharati Krirangan*
*Open in a New Window please.

Photos by: Soumyadeb Sinha
Photos by: Soumyadeb Sinha

Souvenirs

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