Sushil Bhattacharya

Sushil Bhattacharya (; 1924 – 18 July 2015) was an Indian professional football player and coach, who is credited for becoming the first manager of the India women's national football team. He was also the first head coach in history of East Bengal Club.

Playing career Born in Bagdogra, Bhattacharya used to play both cricket and hockey beside football. He then appeared with Vidyasagar College and Sporting Union, before signing with East Bengal in 1945. His consistent performances on both flanks in a 3–2–5 formation helped the team achieving success and earned him a national team callup in 1946. He spent four seasons for the "red and gold brigade", played until 1949, refusing Gostha Pal and Abhilash Ghosh's offers of joining Mohun Bagan.

Coaching career After retiring as a player, Bhattacharya began his coaching career with Eastern Railway, as an assistant coach. He was deputy of Bagha Shome at the club, which was then consisting players like P. K. Banerjee, Pradyut Barman, Prashanta Sinha, Nikhil Nandy, Pakhi Sen and others. He later became the first-ever permanent "head coach" coach of East Bengal. He won the IFA Shield and Calcutta League with East Bengal in 1961.

Bhattacharya also managed Tollygunge Agragami and helped the team gaining promotion to the CFL first division. He then took charge of different age group teams of Bengal alongside the Narendrapur Ramkrishna Mission College football team and Kolkata Veterans Club. During his tenure as coach, he managed players like Tulsidas Balaram, Subhash Bhowmick, Bhaskar Ganguli, Sukumar Samajpati and Krishanu Dey.

In 1975, an advertisement appeared in the local newspapers that notified that a women's team will be formed to represent Bengal. 150 girls like us had no idea about how the things work in professional football. Sushil Bhattacharya selected 16 girls that day. Apart from me, Shanti Mullick, Minati Roy, Shukla Dutta and Judy D'Silva were among the few who made the cut. The trial was held at the Kalighat ground. He was more like a father to us. Most of his students have served the nation for a long time. The biggest quality of his was not to get involved in any controversy ever. Also coaches often get criticized for their actions, but this was rarely the case for Sushil Da, such was the respect for the man. It was great to see the whole Kolkata football fraternity getting united to pay him the last homage. As a man who loved to keep himself away from fanfare, he never got his due recognition. We, be it the male or the female footballers, have been lucky to get him as a guide. As Sanjoy was telling today, we have to carry forward his legacy to develop Indian football further. — Kuntala Ghosh Dastidar, Indian international, sharing her memories with Goal.com, after Bhattacharya's passing away in 2015. He is credited for nurturing Indian women talents like Shanti Mullick, the first ever Padma Shri awardee. Bhattacharya managed Indian women's team when, from 1975 to 1991, the administration was in hands of the Women's Football Federation of India (WFFI) and the Asian Ladies' Football Confederation (ALFC).

He was in charge of India S at the 1980 AFC Women's Championship in Calicut, in which they achieved second finish. In the next edition, at the 1981 AFC Women's Championship, India secured third place, and again finished as runners-up at the 1983. He retired from coaching in 2008.

Death Bhattacharya died of cancer at his home in Tollygunge, Kolkata, on 18 July 2015, aged 90.

Honours Player East Bengal Calcutta Football League: 1945 IFA Shield: 1945

Eastern Railway Rovers Cup runner-up: 1950 Calcutta Football League: 1961 IFA Shield: 1961 Dr. H. K. Mookherjee Shield: 1961 Rovers Cup: 1962

Tollygunge Agragami IFA Shield runner-up: 1971

India (women's) AFC Women's Championship runner-up: 1980, 1983

Individual The Telegraph Hall of Fame: 2012