Football is gaining popularity in India and one can noticeably see the growth in the overall situation of the sport. Football’s importance to Kolkata is similar to the importance of basketball to USA. Kolkata is also known as the football hub of India and has contributed many gems like Chuni Swami, Krishanu Dey, Shailen Manna and Robin Dutt to name a few. There has been a growth in the number of amateur footballers in the country and we can unmistakably see an increase in the number of people wanting to take up careers related to the beautiful game. Football fans put emotions, hard work behind their passion in a bid to leave their mark behind. Kolkata Football club is one such club, formed by football fans, which aims to play for the I-league one day. Formed in June this year, the club aims to gain a professional status soon and plans to play in the top tier by the year 2023.
Q. How did it all begin?
In the beginning, We were a part of Atletico de Kolkata Fans’ Fraternity (Atletico de Kolkata Fans’ Forum then) Football Team, like any other Fans’ Club Soccer Team (Kolkata has official Fans’ Club soccer teams of Chelsea and Manchester United). We started the club to fuel our passion; we conducted practice sessions like any other semi-professional team of the city.
Soon enough, a tournament was round the corner and the time to select a squad had come. We needed to select 10 members to participate in 7-a-side football tournament, Fiesta del Futbol, a tournament that never took place.
It was during the selection process that differences between the President of the ATKFF and the manager of ATKFF Football Team started to arise.
Once upon a time, Kolkata FC was known as ATKFF FT
Q. What led to the change of the club’s name?
The President of ATKFF, Abir Saha had clearly instructed the Manager of the team, Sarthak Mondal to select players of the former’s choice, which included those who never attended the practice sessions. After a few rounds of discussions between Sarthak Mondal, Rohit Ganguly and Shobhan Sinha on the morning of May 11, 2015, a decision was made and 15 players would start a new football team under the name, Kolkata Football Club.
We started practice sessions under our new name on June 5, 2015 as well as recruited new and talented players from Jadavpur area in Kolkata. Slowly, yet steadily, our strength increased to 27 players. Agnish Barman was appointed as the initial in-charge of the side and overlooked the practice sessions, which were conducted smoothly under his supervision.
Q. How has the club performed so far?
The first match was played against a Mixed Team known as Jadavpur XI on June 16, 2015 at the Jadavpur University Ground, which we won 1-0.
However, we got a reality check on June 21, 2015 when we lost 6-1 to against the FIIOB Football Team, their team was superior in comparison and our inexperience was evident.
Kolkata FC’s first date with FIIOB Football Team
After a series of intense practice sessions, we played Chelsea India Supporters Club Kolkata Football Team whom we managed to defeat thanks to a last minute goal scored by Joy Mondal. Since then we have never looked back, we won 2 out of the next 4 games (def. Galacticoz FC 5-1 and Los Merengues Kolkata 3-1), drew 1 game (1-1 against World of Sports Football Team) and lost 1 game (1-2 against FootLoggers United FC).
The team now has a new outlook at management after Agnish Barman was relieved of his duties, on disciplinary grounds, earlier in August.
Prasenjit Chakraborty (Orange) of Kolkata FC tries to snatch the ball from CISCK-FT
Q. What is the aim of Kolkata Football Club?
We aim to play in the top professional league of India with all home grown players and we are in pursuit of the same, doing so, step by step. We will soon be a registered amateur football team under I.F.A. and we have aimed to become professional team in the next 2 years. We would do so by participating in the 5th Division of Calcutta Football League. In the longer run, we wish to move up the ladder and participate in the I-League 2nd Division by 2023.
Kolkata FC in action against FootLoggers United FC at BF Block Ground, Salt Lake, Kolkata
Q. What does KFC aim for the near future?
After we register ourselves as an amateur team, we are likely to get friendly matches against some of the top teams of Kolkata. In those friendly matches, we would like to pull off some upsets so that people can raise their eyes and take notice that there is a new kid in the block. We also target to become the first team to have a senior team and age group teams for both Male and Female Categories by the end of this year.
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