The All India Football Federation has declared June 23, the birthday of Indian soccer icon Pradip Kumar Banerjee, because the ‘AIFF Grassroots Day’. Photo: Twitter/@IndianFootball

The All India Football Federation has declared June 23, the birthday of Indian soccer icon Pradip Kumar Banerjee, because the ‘AIFF Grassroots Day’, the game’s apex physique stated on May 12 .

Popularly generally known as P.Ok., the late Mr. Banerjee captained the Indian workforce within the 1960 Rome Olympics and loved a stellar profession as a participant earlier than taking on teaching, the place he additionally tasted loads of success.

Explaining the explanation behind selecting P.Ok.’s birthday, AIFF secretary normal Shaji Prabhakaran stated, “We often forget Pradip da was a teacher par excellence too. Once he hung up his boots, he took up coaching and for the next 30 years, produced an array of players, who excelled at the national and international levels.

“While his role as a national and a club coach is much discussed, the Indian football fraternity cannot forget P.K. da’s contribution at the grassroots level, his leadership at the Tata Football Academy, his ability to inspire and fine-tune the budding talents.” An exemplary footballer, Banerjee performed a pivotal function in India’s historic gold medal end within the 1962 Asian Games.

In 1969, when FIFA ran its first teaching course in Japan beneath German coach Dettmar Cramer, generally known as the soccer professor within the worldwide circuit, Banerjee enrolled himself for the course and returned dwelling with a first-class diploma.

His soccer teaching course ran on Doordarshan for a lot of weeks.

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AIFF president Kalyan Chaubey paid homage to Banerjee, who died in March 2020, and stated the federation would attempt to honour his reminiscence by guaranteeing the fixed progress of the sport.

“No words I use will be enough to honour Pradip da’s contribution to Indian football,” he stated.

“He deserves all our appreciation. There are a rare few like him, a great player, a great mentor and a great coach who was filled with passion and always wanted to see Indian football rise.” Born in Jalpaiguri, Banerjee is broadly thought to be one among India’s biggest footballers and was the nation’s the nation’s highest scorer with 4 objectives en path to the triumph in 1962 Asian Games.