Karuna Bhattacharya

Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya

Personal information
Full name	Karuna Sankar "Habla" Bhattacharya
Date of birth	1909
Date of death	1979
Position(s)	Winger
Senior career*
Years	Team	Apps	(Gls)
–1930	Aryan
1930–38	Mohun Bagan
National team
1938	India	5	(3)
Teams managed
–	Mohun Bagan
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only

Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya (1909-1979) was a former Indian footballer who represented and captained the Indian national football team and Mohun Bagan, a football club in Kolkata. The Karuna Bhattacharya Award is given to the best player of Mohun Bagan in every season. On 11 July 2015 Mohun Bagan conferred the "Mohun Bagan Ratna" to Karuna Bhattacharya.^[1] He was the first captain of the Indian national football team during their first officially recognised match in the international tour of Australia against the Australia national football team in 1938.^[2][3][4]

Football career[]

Karuna Sankar (Habla) Bhattacharya represented Mohun Bagan for nine consecutive seasons from 1930 onwards. He played alongside Gostha Pal, Umapati Kumar, Sanmatha Dutta, Bimal Mukherjee, Satu Chowdhury, and many others. The period from 1933 to 1939 was a golden era for Mohun Bagan, and they won 29 trophies during this time. In that 7 years Mohun Bagan was virtually invincible in derby losing only 1 match that period to an East Bengal. From 1938 onwards, he did play few years in Customs.

After brushing up his skills under the coaching of Dukhiram (Umesh Chandra) Majumdar, Bhattacharya started his career in Aryan before joining Mohun Bagan in 1930. He scored several important goals in his football career while playing as the right-in in the 2-3-5 formation. He was one of the most vital players in the team when Mohun Bagan won their first ever league title, winning the Calcutta Football League in 1939.^[5]

Bhattacharya was the captain of the Indian team that went to Australia in 1938. He was one of the stars during the Australia tour, scoring a brace against Queensland and the Australia National Team.^[6] He was also part of the Indian team that played against the Olympic team of China in 1936. The match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Bhattacharya also was part of several Indians vs. Europeans football matches from 1931 to 1939. During this period, he played against the Europeans in 1932 (5-0), 1933 (2-0), 1935 (5-0), 1937 (1-0), 1938 (0-1), and 1939 (2-2). In this series which was held once a year, Karuna Bhattacharya scored in 1932 (2 goals), 1935 (2 goals), 1939 (1 goal).

He also was part of the IFA XI side that went to a Sri Lanka and South Africa tour in 1933 and 1934 respectively.

IFA XI won 4 matches at Sri Lanka (3-2, 4-1, 1-0, 2-0) while the other match ended in a 1-1 draw.

Out of the 19 games played at South Africa, IFA XI won 18 (6-0, 6-1, 6-1, 2-0, 2-0, 7-1, 9-0, 6-1, 3-1, 4-1, 6-1, 8-1, 1-0, 2-1, 4-1, 2-0, 2-0, 5-0) and lost just 1 match (1-3).

Under the captaincy of Karuna Bhattacharya, Indian team played 15 games, out of which they won 6 (6-1, 5-2, 5-2, 4-1, 6-4, 3-1), drew 2 (4-4, 3-3) and lost 7 matches (2-4, 4-6, 1-2, 3-5, 4-5, 4-6, 1-5).

After retiring from football, he became the football secretary of Mohun Bagan in 1955 and 1961 and also worked as the tennis secretary in 1954. He also was the manager of the green and maroon brigade in several tournaments including tour of Indonesia in 1956, tour of East Africa in 1961, and tour of Sri Lanka in 1968.

International statistics[]

Scores and results list India's goal tally first.^[3]

Goal	Date	Venue	Opponent	Result	Competition
1	3 September 1938	Royal Agricultural Show Ground, Sydney, Australia	Australia	3–5	Friendly
2	10 September 1938	Royal Brisbane Exhibition Ground, Brisbane, Australia	Australia	4–4	Friendly
3	17 September 1938	Newcastle Sports Ground, Newcastle, Australia	Australia	4–1	Friendly

References[]