Bengal Mumbai Football Club Announces Grand Return With New Football Academy

Mumbai: After 22 years, "East Bengal" on the banks of the Ganges in Kolkata became the best in club football in India on Thursday, May 21. On the other hand, after 14 years, the coastal football club "Bengal Mumbai Football Club" (BMFC) of Mumbai city announced their next step on Monday, May 25.

It is worth noting that BMFC is India's first privately owned professional commercial football club. Although football is popular all over the country at present, football has been in the blood of Bengalis for many ages in the conventional sense. Bengali hero monk Vivekananda himself also spoke about playing football. Young Krishnendu Sen came forward with the aim of creating football craze in the blood of Bengalis living in Mumbai city. He formed "Bengal Mumbai Football Club" in Mumbai city in 1998.

Just as there are victories and defeats in history, there are also ups and downs in football. BMFC's lifeblood, the seventy-year-old Krishendu Sen, is carrying all this with him. Seventy years of age is not just any age, as has been proven time and again. There are many examples in our country where many prominent people have achieved success after sixty or seventy years.

However, Krishendu Sen's first success as a professional club football manager was when his team BMFC won the prestigious Rovers Cup on December 5, 1998. In the final of the competition, they defeated Central Railway FC 3-0 to become champions. In the semi-finals and the previous round, they defeated strong teams like JCT Mills and Churchill Brothers.

Not only that, in the year of its establishment, they also won the league organized by the Western India Football Association (WIFA) by showing extraordinary dominance. In 2004, BMFC finished as runners-up in the Lal Bahadur Shastri Cup. Continuing their dominance, the club reached the final of the Sikkim Governor's Gold Cup in 2010. In the final, the team lost 1–3 to ONGC.

BMFC was under the guidance of Iranian coach Jamshed Nasiri from 1998 to 2001. Chima Okeri, Dronacharya Syed Naeemuddin, Jahar Das, Mohammad Habib and Hakim Saab have also coached the club at various times. Apart from being a coach, Chima Okeri also served as the manager of the BMFC team in 2006.

Former goalkeeper and current top official of Indian football, Kalyan Chaubey, has been the goalkeeper of the team. Apart from him, many international players including Chima Okeri, Abdul Latif Siriki, James Singh, Abdul Khalek, Uday Konar, Abhay Kumar, Jaspreet Singh, Kasif Jamal have played for this club.

Bengal Mumbai Football Club was not limited to professional football only, they also successfully ran the first professional youth academies to popularize football in Maharashtra and to bring up local young players. Later, due to internal politics in Indian football, Krishendu Sen wound up the activities of this club in 2011.

Krishendu Sen is going to make his debut in football again after 14 years because football is in his blood. For this, he has chosen today's day. Today is May 25. World Football Day is celebrated every year on May 25. The United Nations has declared this international day to recognize the global impact of football, its cultural importance and the contribution of the game in creating harmony between people around the world. But this time, it is not a football club, but a football academy. From the academy, footballers will be born and spread across the country. He is going to build the "BMFC Football Academy" under the umbrella of the "Roman Sen Foundation". The city of Karjat, a city of natural beauty surrounded by hills, forests and waterfalls near Mumbai, will be the main center of this academy.

This residential football academy will be built with 100 young footballers aged 13. Along with football education, they will also have a textbook education system in the six-year course football academy. The activities of the "BMFC Football Academy" will start in 2026. There will be experienced coaches, assistant coaches, doctors, physiotherapists and all the modern facilities required for a football academy to educate child footballers.

Krishnendu Sen wants footballers to emerge from the "BMFC Football Academy" who will play for Mohun Bagan, East Bengal and various clubs in Mumbai, Goa, Kerala and East India in the future. On the other hand, this football academy plans to bring teams from popular European, South American and Asian football academies not just for meeting and greetings, but also for matches. Krishnendu Sen's dream is that the footballers of the "BMFC Football Academy" will participate in world-class football competitions in 2047, the centenary of India's independence, and will take Indian football to the world.

For more detailed information about the "BMFC Football Academy", contact Krishnendu Sen (91673 28333).