The Kolkata football fraternity still can’t believe that footballer Samar ‘Badru’ Banerjee is no more. Banerjee passed away on Saturday at 92. Fondly known as Badru Da, he led the country to a historic fourth-place finish at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
Tulsidas Balaram, the lone survivor in India’s 1956 Olympics football team, said: “What should I live for? Chuni Goswami is gone [expired in 2020] and now my captain Badru has left me behind. This is very shocking.”
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Sukumar Samajpati, another top-class forward, said, “Badru da was very swift. He had powerful shots towards the goal. Basically, he was known for his goal-scoring ability.”
Arun Ghosh, another Olympian footballer, paid tribute to the departed footballer: “He was a good soul, a good human being and an educated footballer, who studied medicine. But his first love was football.”
Ghosh highlighted the fact that Banerjee could dribble past the defence with speed and had excellent ball control.
