Karuna Bhattacharya

Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya (1909–1979) was a former Indian footballer who represented and captained the India 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 29 July 2015 Mohun Bagan conferred the "Mohun Bagan Ratna" to Karuna Bhattacharya. He was the first captain of the India national football team during their first officially recognised match in the international tour of Australia against the Australia national football team in 1938.

Football career Bhattacharya represented Mohun Bagan for nine consecutive seasons from 1930 onwards. He played alongside Gostha Pal, Syed Abdus Samad, Umapati Kumar, Balaidas Chatterjee, Sanmatha Dutta, Bimal Mukherjee, R. Lumsden, Satu Chowdhury, and many others during that time. The period from 1933 to 1939 was a golden era for Mohun Bagan, and they won 29 trophies during this time. In these 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 Majumder, Bhattacharya started his career in Aryan before joining Mohun Bagan in 1930. He was scouted by Dukhiram Majumder in Berhampur, and was signed by Aryan in 1928. Bhattacharya debuted for the club in Rovers Cup. He also played few exhibition matches in Bangladesh with IFA XI in 1930. that went to Australia in 1938 after the invitation from Australian Football Association. He was one of the stars during the Australia tour, scoring a brace against Queensland and the Australia National Team. 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 Ceylon and South Africa tour in 1933 and 1934 respectively. IFA XI won 4 matches in Ceylon (3–2, 4–1, 1–0, 2–0) while the other match ended in a 1–1 draw. Out of the 19 games played in 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 Bhattacharya, the 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).

International statistics Scores and results list India's goal tally first. Coochbehar Cup: 1931, 1935, 1936 Lakhsmibilas Cup: 1937 Trades Cup: 1938

Individual Mohun Bagan Ratna: 2015

Legacy Mohun Bagan Athletic Club began giving the "Karuna Sankar Bhattacharya Memorial Award for best footballer" in memory of him.