The East Bengal Club Season Awards are the official East Bengal awards presented on 1 August to various recipients in the Foundation Day celebrations of the club. The Inaugural award was handed out in 2011 which had three categories the highlight 'Bharat Gourav Award', the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' and the 'Player of the Season Award'.
Awards ceremony
East Bengal Club was founded on 1 August 1920 and every year on this day, the club celebrates its Foundation Day. Since 2011, the awards ceremony was launched by the club to commemorate and honour different sporting personalities as per the categories. The highest honour "Bharat Gaurav" award is handed out each year to honour outstanding sports personalities who have made the country proud in different fields of sports. Along with the "Bharat Gaurav" award, the club also presents two lifetime achievement awards namely "Dr Ramesh Chandra (Nosa) Sen Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award" and "Byomkesh Bose Memorial Lifetime Achievement Award" in respect of two former legends of the club, to honour former players and sportspersons who have represented the club. Along with these, the club also awards the "Player of the Season" to the best player of the previous season. The club also awards two awards dedicated to sports journalists namely the "Ajoy Bose Memorial Journalism Award" and "Pushpen Sarkar Memorial Photo-Journalism Award". The club also hands over the "Pankaj Gupta Memorial and Pratul Gupta Memorial Referee Award" to various referees from Kolkata maidan.
Winners Bharat Gaurav Award
East Bengal Club had constituted the ‘Bharat Gaurav Award' in 2011, as the highest decoration by the club to honour the outstanding sports personalities who had made India proud in different fields of sports. Three times Olympic Champion and Indian Hockey legend Leslie Claudius was the first recipient of the award in 2011. The club has awarded the likes of Ahmed Khan, Arun Ghosh, Bachendri Pal, Milkha Singh, Dhanraj Pillay, Gurbux Singh, Kapil Dev since then. The award was not presented in two years 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19 pandemic in India. In 2022 the awards were once again presented, with former India women's national cricket team captain Jhulan Goswami and tennis star Leander Paes jointly awarded the honour by the club.
YearRecipientSport FieldRef 2011 Leslie Claudius Field hockey 2012 Ahmed Khan Football 2013 Arun Ghosh Football 2014 Bachendri Pal Mountaineering 2015 Mohammed Habib Football 2016 Milkha Singh Sprint 2017 Dhanraj Pillay Field hockey 2018 Gurbux Singh Field hockey 2019 Kapil Dev Cricket 2020not awarded 2021not awarded 2022 Jhulan Goswami Cricket Leander Paes Tennis 2023 Ratan Tata Industrialist 2024 Sourav Ganguly Cricket
Player of the Season Award
East Bengal had constituted the 'Player of the Season Award' in 2011 to honour the best football player of the previous season. It is decided by the Executive Members committee. Mehtab Hossain was the first recipient in 2011.
However, the first Player of the Season title was awarded at the end of the 2007–08 season, given by the then official marketing partner - Ideas Unlimited, with goalkeeper Subrata Paul being the winner.
YearNationalityRecipientPositionRef 2008 India Subrata Paul Goalkeeper 2011 India Mehtab Hossain Midfielder 2012 Nigeria Penn Orji Midfielder 2013 India Saumik Dey Defender 2014 India Arnab Mondal Defender 2015 India Robert Lalthlamuana Defender 2016 South Korea Do Dong-hyun Forward 2017 India Gurwinder Singh Defender 2018 Syria Mahmoud Amnah Midfielder 2019 India Laldanmawia Ralte Midfielder 2020not awarded 2021not awarded 2022not awarded 2023 Brazil Cleiton Silva Forward 2024 India Nandhakumar Sekar Forward
Lifetime Achievement Award
East Bengal had constituted the 'Lifetime Achievement Award' in 2011 to honour a legendary sports personality of the club. It is decided by the Executive Members committee. India and East Bengal Legend Sudhir Karmakar and Sukumar Samajpati were the first recipients of this award in 2011.
YearNationalityRecipientPositionRef2011 India Sudhir Karmakar Defender India Sukumar Samajpati Defender 2012 India Prasanta Sinha Midfielder India Santo Mitra Defender 2013 India Samaresh Chowdhury Midfielder India Abani Bose Goalkeeper 2014 India Amal Dutta Defender India Parimal Dey Forward 2015 India Chandan Banerjee Defender 2016 India Shyamal Ghosh Defender India Shyam Thapa Forward 2017 India Subhash Bhowmick Forward 2018 India Sunil Bhattacharya Defender India Surajit Sengupta Forward 2019 India Monoranjan Bhattacharya Defender India Bhaskar Ganguly Goalkeeper 2020not awarded 2021not awarded 2022 India Gautam Sarkar Midfielder India Swapan Sengupta Midfielder 2023 India Tarun Bose Goalkeeper 2024 India Ranjit Mukherjee Forward India Prasanta Banerjee Midfielder
Academy Player of the Year Award
East Bengal had constituted the 'Academy Player of the Year Award' in 2018 to honour the best football player of the East Bengal FC Academy for the previous season. It is decided by the Executive Members committee. Manoj Mohammed and PC Rohlupuia were the first recipients of this award in 2018.
YearNationalityRecipientPositionRef2018 India Manoj Mohammed Defender India PC Rohlupuia Midfielder 2019not awarded 2020not awarded 2021not awarded
Special awards On the occasion of the centenary celebrations of the club in 2019, a set of special awards were awarded to sports personalities associated with the East Bengal club.
Award NameNationalityRecipientRef Coach of Coaches award India P. K. Banerjee Best Foreign Player award Iran Majid Bishkar
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