List of foreign East Bengal FC players
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
East Bengal is an Indian association football club based in Kolkata, West Bengal, which competes in the top tier of Indian football. The club was formed in August 1920 when the Jorabagan Club's vice-president, Suresh Chandra Chaudhuri, resigned. He did so after the club sent out their starting eleven with the notable exclusion of defender Sailesh Bose, who was dropped from the squad for undisclosed reasons when they were about to face Mohun Bagan in the Coochbehar Cup semi-final on 28 July 1920. He, along with Raja Manmatha Nath Chaudhuri, Ramesh Chandra Sen and Aurobinda Ghosh, formed East Bengal on 1 August 1920. East Bengal started playing in the Calcutta Football League, 2nd division, in 1921. In 1925, they qualified for the first division for the first time and since then they have won many Indian football titles.[1]
East Bengal joined the National Football League (NFL) at its inception in 1996[2][3] and is the only club to have played every season to date, including those after the rebranded I-League succeeded the NFL in 2007. East Bengal won the National Football League in 2000–01, 2002–03 and 2003–04 and were runners up seven times, the most by any Indian football club. Among other trophies, East Bengal has won the Calcutta Football League 39 times, the IFA Shield 28 times, the Federation Cup eight times and the Durand Cup 16 times.[3] The team has been one of the most successful in Indian Football. Since the independence of India, the club has attracted many foreign players and regularly featured big names from across the world, including some who have represented their nation at the FIFA World Cup.[4]
This chronological list comprises all foreign players to have signed and played for the club since their foundation in 1920. Each players entry includes his nationality and season of first joining the club. There have been one hundred seventy five foreign players to play for East Bengal to date from forty-nine different countries, with thirty of them from Nigeria, the most from any single nation.