In the early hours of January 21, former India footballer and coach Subhas Bhowmick passed away at 72 years of age after undergoing diabetes and kidney related treatment at a private hospital in Ekbalpur, South Kolkata for the past two weeks.
Death:
Suffering from diabetes and kidney disease for a long time, Bhownik’s health started deteriorating on Saturday and breathed his last at 3.30am IST.
One of the family members said, “He had to undergo dialysis regularly for about three and half months. He also underwent bypass surgery about 23 years ago. Recently, he was admitted to a private hospital in Ekbalpur with a chest infection.”
He was popularly known as ‘Bhombol da’ in Kolkata, and was a successful footballer as well as coach. He was a part of the Indian team that won a bronze medal in the 1970 Asian Games.
Career:
Bhowmick joined East Bengal F.C. in 1969 and, after spending a season there, joined Mohun Bagan in 1970. At the end of the 1973 season, he returned to East Bengal and represented them till 1976, after which he rejoined Mohun Bagan. He was one of the prime faces of the East Bengal F.C. team which had demolished Mohun Bagan A.C. 5-0 in the 1975 IFA Shield final at Calcutta. After the 1977-78 season, he returned to East Bengal and retired in 1979.[4] During his playing years, he was known as a powerful forward with good goal scoring abilities.
Subhash won a total of 26 trophies in his club career, 18 in Mohun Bagan itself. Subhash scored a total of 82 goals for Mohun Bagan in six years including four hat-tricks.
In the 2012-13 season, he coached Churchill Brothers S.C. as a technical director (as he did not hold an A-license, hence he could not officially be the coach of an I-League club), and led them to the top of the league standings in the I-League.
A successful footballer and coach:
Subhash Bhowmick has been very successful as a coach for the East Bengal Club. He had a forgettable first stint with the same club during the 1999–00 season. During his second stint as coach, the club won a multitude of trophies including back to back NFL titles in 2002–03 and 2003–04, apart from Kolkata Football League, Durand Cup and IFA Shield victories. East Bengal also won the LG ASEAN Club Cup in 2003 under his management.
Bribery case:
It was in 2005 when Bhowmick stepped down as coach of East Bengal after being implicated in an alleged bribery scandal.