East Bengal celebrate Foundation Day

Kolkata giants East Bengal Club celebrated their 93rd Foundation Day yesterday on their Maidan club premises, the day on which the red-and-gold had been founded in 1920.

The day’s celebration had been launched in the morning by legendary footballer Ahmed Khan.The evening program was opened by West Bengal Governor M.K. Narayanan with lighting of the lamp along with West Bengal ministers Partha Chatterjee, Madan Mitra and Bratya Basu along with the Mayor of Kolkata Sovan Chatterjee.

During the program, the legendary footballer Ahmed Khan was presented the ‘Bharat Gourav’ Award from Governor M.K. Narayanan. Former Red & Gold stars Prasanta Sinha and Santo Mitra were given the ‘Life Time Achievement’ awards, while former club captain Ilyas Pasha was handed a cheque of Rs. 500,000( 5 lacs ).

Current East Bengal midfielder Penn Ikechukwu Orji from Nigeria was given the ‘Golden Boot’ Award for his stellar performances in the 2011/12 season.

Former referees Sumanta Ghosh and Sagar Sen along with noted Sports journalists Shibaji Dasgupta and Rupak Saha were also felicitated at the function.

Besides the presentation of awards for outstanding services to the club, there was a cultural function in which singers Indrani Sen and Saikat Mitra performed.