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Ranjit Saha (Bengali: রনজিত সাহা; 15 January 1964) is a retired Bangladeshi football player who played as a center-back. He represented the Bangladesh national football team between 1983 and 1987.
| Personal information | ||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Ranjit Kumar Saha | |||||||||||||
| Date of birth | 15 January 1964 | |||||||||||||
| Place of birth | Cumilla, East Pakistan (present-day Bangladesh) | |||||||||||||
| Height | 1.80 m (5 ft 11 in) | |||||||||||||
| Position(s) | Center-back | |||||||||||||
| Senior career* | ||||||||||||||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) | |||||||||||
| 1981–1982 | Dhanmondi Club | |||||||||||||
| 1983–1987 | Mohammedan SC | |||||||||||||
| 1988–1992 | Abahani Limited Dhaka | |||||||||||||
| International career | ||||||||||||||
| 1984 | Bangladesh U19 | |||||||||||||
| 1983–1987 | Bangladesh | |||||||||||||
Medal record
| ||||||||||||||
| *Club domestic league appearances and goals | ||||||||||||||
Ranjit Kumar Saha was born in Cumilla, Bangladesh, on 15 January 1964. His father Suresh Chandra Saha was the manager of a renowned pharmaceutical company, Comilla Sharma Chemical. His father's death plunged him into darkness when he was in eighth grade and in order to support his family, Ranjit had to work in a clothing shop while also continuing his studies.[1]
Ranjit's career began with school football in Cumilla which caught the attention of Dhanmondi Club coach Md Mohsin, in 1981. However, before making his Dhaka League debut, he represented Arambagh KS as a guest player at the ANFA Cup, in Nepal. With Arambagh finishing the tournament as runner-up, coach Ashraf Chowdhury was desperate to lure Ranjit to the club on a permanent basis. However, he returned to Dhanmondi Club and spent two seasons at the club. Towards the end of 1982, Ranjit again partook in the ANFA Cup, this time as a guest player for Mohammedan SC.[1]
In 1983, Ranjit joined Mohammedan SC permanently, during a period when the Dhaka Derby against Abahani Limited Dhaka was the center of Bangladeshi sports. From 1983 until 1985, he was part of three league runner-up sides. In 1986, Ranjit won his first league title and marshalled the defense alongside Kaiser Hamid, as the Black and Whites defeated Abahani 2–0 in the title deciding game, before going onto win 4–2 against Dhaka Wanderers in the last Super League game.[1]
In 1987, Ranjit was appointed club captain and led them to the domestic double.[2] He began the season by lifting the Federation Cup and in the Super League round of the Dhaka League, Mohammedan defeated Abahani 3–2, with Khurshid Alam Babul scoring the late winner from Ranjit's throw-in. With both clubs on equal points, and the return play-off game ending as a stalemate, the players alongside the club officials agreed upon being crowned joint-champions.[3] However, the Bangladesh Football Federation reacted by suspending Ranjit alongside Abahani captain Sheikh Mohammad Aslam for a year, and also arranged a second playoff match behind closed doors, at the Army Stadium. Mohammedan ended up winning the game 2–0, and the following year, Ranjit sealed a move to Abahani.[4][5]
Ranjit's most successful season at Abahani came in 1989, as he won the league title and was also part of the team which defeated Salgaocar FC, in the final of India's Sait Nagjee Trophy. Aside from football in Dhaka, Ranjit represented Cumilla District in the Sher-e-Bangla Cup, while in 1989 he won the Chittagong Football League with Sicustom. He retired after securing the 1992 Dhaka League title with Abahani.[6]
In 1982, Ranjit represented the Bangladesh Green team at the President's Gold Cup, and the following year, in the same tournament, he made his senior international debut for the main national team, called Bangladesh Red. In 1984, he participated in the 1985 AFC Youth Championship qualifiers with the Bangladesh U19 team. In 1985, Ranjit traveled to Pakistan to take part in the Quaid-e-Azam International Cup. After Bangladesh finished runners-up in the tournament behind North Korea XI, Ranjit secured a place in Kazi Salahuddin's final squad for the 1985 South Asian Games. The team won silver, losing to India on penalties in the final.
Ranjit also represented Bangladesh at the 1986 Asian Games. In the same year, he played for Mohammedan SC at Nepal's Panchayat Silver Jubilee Cup, and according to World Football Elo Ratings, Mohammedan played the tournament as the Bangladesh national team. In 1987, he represented the Bangladesh White team, which included players from Mohammedan SC, at the President's Gold Cup, held in Dhaka. However, due to the ban he earned during the Dhaka Derby the same year, Ranjit was not able to join the team for the 1987 South Asian Games.[6]
Mohammedan SC
- Dhaka League: 1986, 1987
- Federation Cup: 1983, 1987
Abahani Limited Dhaka
- Dhaka League: 1989–90, 1992
- Independence Cup: 1990
- Azmiri Begum Gold Cup: 1990
- Sait Nagjee Trophy: 1989
- Federation Cup: 1988
- BTC Clubs Cup: 1991
- DMFA Cup: 1984
Bangladesh
- South Asian Games Silver medal: 1985
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