Kolkata: Mohun Bagan announced former player and assistant coach Sankarlal Chakraborty as the head coach till the end of the season, on Wednesday.
The Tata Football Academy (TFA) graduate who joined the Mariners in July 2014 as an assistant to Subhas Bhowmick replaced the outgoing Sanjoy Sen who stepped down on Tuesday evening after Bagan’s shock 1-2 against Chennai City at home.
“..the club management have decided to elevate Mr. Sankarlal Chakraborty, as the Head Coach for the remainder of the 2017-18 season,” said an official press release issued by the club on Wednesday afternoon.
Interestingly, Sanjoy Sen had decided to part ways with the club after a string of poor results that saw Bagan slip down to fifth with just 10 points from seven outings, after drawing three consecutive games followed by a shocking loss to Chennai City at the club ground in Maidan.
“The club management would like to thank Mr. Sen for all the hard work he has done being in charge of the team for the past 3 years. We wish him all success for his future endeavors,” said the statement.
Chakraborty’s associtaion with Bagan however dated back to 1996 when he joined the Mariners with the likes of Dipendu Biswas and Renedy Singh after graduating out of the TFA. But his playing career did not last long and after a series of injuries he retired as a player in 2002.
The way he broke his leg while trying to tackle Chima Okorie during a Kolkata Derby clash in East Bengal colours remained the highlight of his never promising football career.
He took up coaching in 2011 and rose through the ranks after stints with the Bagan Youth teams, to become an assistant to the then head coach Subhas Bhowmick in 2014.
Although Bhowmick was sacked late that very year, Chakraborty remained and worked as an assistant under newly appointed Sanjoy Sen. He has also managed the senior Bagan side for the last two years in the Calcutta Football League (CFL) and was also in charge of the team when Sen was suspended by the All Indian Football Federation (AIFF) in the 2015-16 season.
He is expected to meet the media personnel on Thursday after presiding over a training session in the morning.