Indian football legend Chuni Goswami, 82, passes away

Under Goswami’s captaincy, the Indian football team won the coveted gold medal in the 1962 Asian Games while finishing runner-up in the Asian Cup in 1964. Goswami played club football for Mohun Bagan. He holds the distinction of playing for a single club, Mohun Bagan, throughout his club career despite numerous offers from other clubs including one reported offer from English side Tottenham Hotspur.

Goswami was suffering from underlying ailments with sugar, prostate and nerve problems for the last few months and breathed his last on Thursday (April 30).

"He suffered a cardiac arrest and died in the hospital at around 5pm, a family source told PTI.

For Calcutta University, he captained both the cricket and football teams in the same year. He was an all-rounder in cricket and featured in two Ranji Trophy finals for Bengal.

Goswami made his international debut for India in the year 1956 during team’s 1-0 win over the Chinese Olympic team and went on to represent India in 50 international matches including Olympics, Asian Games, Asia Cup and Merdeka Cup. However, he quit international football in 1964 at the age of just 27.

Goswami was known for his dribbling skills, splendid passing accuracy, fabulous ball control and ability to bamboozle defenders with body feints and those traits made him a superstar. His sense of positioning and nack of unleashing volleys from anywhere in the penalty box made him unique.

One of Goswami’s famous exploits on the cricket field came against Gary Sobers’ West Indies as he and Subroto Guha played their way to register the historic innings for combined Central and East Zone team in Indore. Goswami scalped a staggering eight wickets in that match against the Windies. There were calls to include him in the Indian Test side but the call never came.

In First-Class cricket, Goswami accumulated 1592 runs in 46 matches with one cnetury and seven haf-centuries under his belt. He further picked up 47 wickets at an average of 24.08.