East Bengal FC Reserves and Academy

East Bengal FC Reserves and Academy are the under-21, under-17, under-15 and under-13 teams of East Bengal. The under-21 team is often the last stage before the promotion into the first team.[2] The youth teams participate in the Elite league of various age groups. The East Bengal Academy was re-instated on 20 June 2016 with the motive to establish a strong footprint in Indian football by producing quality professional players. The main objective of this project has been to supply professional quality players to the East Bengal senior team & Indian national team.[2]

The East Bengal Academy was founded in the early part of the 21st century and had a major success initially as the U-19 East Bengal team won the first two U-19 National Football leagues held in 2001-02 and 2002-03[3] and then the club's Under-15 team qualified for the Manchester United Premier Cup after being champions of India defeating Mahindra United 1–0 in the final,[4] and becoming South–East Asian regional runners up in 2007.[5] The Junior team faced the youth teams of Manchester United, A.S. Roma and Shandong Luneng and FK Austria Wien in the final round held in Manchester, however, they lost all the games in the group stages.[6] In the 17–20th place play-off semi-finals, the team defeated Bukit Jalil of Malaysia by 3-1, but lost to Central United of New Zealand in the 17th place play-offs by 5-3 via tiebreakers, after the game ended goalless. The U-15 team finished 18th[7] among the 20 teams who had reached the world final stage and is to date the best finish by any Indian club in the Nike Premier Cup.[8] The East Bengal U-19 team was the primary youth team before the Elite League started in 2010. Players like Israil Gurung, Saikat Saha Roy etc. were part of the East Bengal youth setup in the mid 2000s. In 2006, former East Bengal legend and National League winning coach Monoranjan Bhattacharya was appointed as the head coach of the East Bengal U-19 team.[9]

The East Bengal Academy started with new endeavours in 2016 as they brought in Ranjan Chowdhury as head of the project with an aim to produce Indian talents and build up the supply line for the main team of East Bengal.[10] The team finished runners-up in the 2016–17 I-League U18, losing 2-1 to AIFF Elite Academy in the final. The team also reached the semi-final in 2017–18.[11] The team was disbanded after the 2019–20 Indian Elite League was called off due to COVID-19 pandemic in India. In 2022, after the new investors Emami Group joined the club, the youth teams have been revived

East Bengal officially did not have a reserve team prior to 2020. However, the club formed a reserve team composed of academy players and few senior team members to participate in minor tournaments like Bordoloi Trophy, Darjeeling Gold Cup etc. In 2018, the East Bengal Reserves team, coached by Ranjan Chowdhury, won the Darjeeling Gold Cup defeating another Kolkata giant Mohammedan Sporting in the final.[12]

The reserve team was formed in 2020 and intended to play in the I-League 2, along with the Calcutta Football League from the 2020–21 season.[13] However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in India, the team was scrapped and after new investors Emami group tied up with the club, the reserve team was once again launched in 2022. Former Kerala football team coach Bino George was appointed as the head coach of the reserve team.[14][15] The club also recruited former captain Sangram Mukherjee as the goalkeeper coach for the team.[16] The club also bolstered the squad by making some top signings from the Santosh Trophy teams, including five players from Kerala, the champions of the 2021–22 edition.[17][18] The reserve participated in the 2022 Calcutta Premier Division and finished fourth in the Super Six.[19] The reserve team also participated in the 2022–23 I-League 2 along with the reserve teams of other Indian Super League sides – Bengaluru FC, Chennaiyin FC , FC Goa, Hyderabad FC and Mumbai City FC. The club also roped in AFC A license holder Archisman Biswas as the assistant coach for the reserve side.[20] In the first season, East Bengal reserves side finished third in the group behind United and Shillong Lajong.[21]

Reserve squad

As of 6 September 2023

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 99 GK  IND Aditya Patra 50 GK  IND Suryash Jaiswal 65 GK  IND Muhammed Nishad P. — GK  IND Ranit Sarkar — GK  IND Bacchu Das 61 DF  IND Athul Uninkrishnan 58 DF  IND Niranjan Mondal 53 DF  IND Arpan Polley 60 DF  IND Adil Amal — DF  IND Ramesh Limbu Chemjang — DF  IND Pranav Mandavi — DF  IND Rahul Naskar — DF  IND Bunando Singh Khangembam 52 MF  IND Sanjib Ghosh 55 MF  IND Dip Saha — MF  IND Sagar Khamaru 56 MF  IND Tanmay Das

No. Pos. Nation Player — MF  IND Sujit Singh 38 MF  IND Mahitosh Roy — MF  IND Naseeb Rahman — MF  IND Shyamal Besra — MF  IND Avishek Kunjam — MF  IND Danger Brahma — MF  IND Razibul Mistry — MF  IND Koustav Dutta 54 FW  IND Vishnu TM — FW  IND Aftab Alam 97 FW  IND Subham Bhowmick 64 FW  IND Jesin TK 62 FW  IND Lijo L. 82 FW  IND Vishnu PV — FW  IND Sayan Banerjee

Coaching staff

Role	Name
Head coach	Bino George
Assistant coach	Archisman Biswas
Goalkeeper coach	Sangram Mukherjee
Physiotherapist	MD Shakil
Head of Performance & Video Analyst	Aromal Vijayan
Team manager	Pratim K. Saha

East Bengal participate in the Reliance Foundation Development League from the 2023.[22][23][24] Reserve team head coach Bino George has been in charge of the developmental league squad.[25] East Bengal fielded a squad composed of players from its senior team, reserves, youth teams and its academy in Rajganj. On 14 March, in the first RFDL game, East Bengal defeated United SC to start their campaign.[26] On 21 April 2023, East Bengal defeated arch-rivals Mohun Bagan U-21 2–0 to become the East zone champions and qualify for the national group stage.[27][28] On 28 April, East Bengal defeated Ramthar Veng 3–1 in the first match of the National Group Stage.[29]

Squad

As of 13 March 2023[30]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  IND Bacchu Das 4 DF  IND Sudipta Mondal 5 DF  IND Haru Roy 7 FW  IND Rakesh Mali 10 FW  IND Miraj Mullick 13 GK  IND Nur Alam Gazi 15 MF  IND Shyamal Besra 18 FW  IND Himanshu Jangra 21 MF  IND Kush Chhetry 22 DF  IND Souvik Mondal 23 MF  IND Pritam Sardar 24 DF  IND Rahul Naskar 25 MF  IND Moni Sankar Adhikari 26 MF  IND Mocha Irom 27 FW  IND Alauddin 28 DF  IND Avik Ghosh 29 DF  IND Satender Paswan 37 DF  IND Tuhin Das 40 MF  IND Bikash Oraon 41 MF  IND Rupam Roy

No. Pos. Nation Player 42 MF  IND Bapi Barman 44 DF  IND Mithun Roy 45 FW  IND Sourav Biswas 46 MF  IND Aman CK 47 MF  IND Muhammed Roshal PP 48 MF  IND Naseeb Rahman 49 FW  IND Mohammed Rasik CP 52 MF  IND Sanjib Ghosh 53 DF  IND Arpan Polley 54 MF  IND Vishnu TM 55 MF  IND Dip Saha 56 MF  IND Tanmay Das 60 DF  IND Adil Amal 61 DF  IND Athul Unnikrishnan 62 MF  IND Lijo K 64 FW  IND Jesin TK 65 GK  IND Muhammed Nishad P 81 MF  IND Mohammed Afjal 88 MF  IND Mohammed Yasin 99 GK  IND Aditya Patra

The under-17 team participates in the U17 Youth Cup. The team is coached by former East Bengal captain Tarun Dey.[32]

The National Football League U-19 was launched in 2001 and the East Bengal U-19 team won the inaugural edition defeating India sub-juniors 3–2 in the final.[33] The U-19 team defended the title the following year as they defeated JCT Football Academy 1–0 in the final.[34] The team also finished runners-up in the 2003–04 edition as they lost to their rivals Mohun Bagan U-19 3–1 in the penalty shoot-out after the final ended 0–0 in regulation time.[3] After the tournament was restarted as the I-League U19 in 2008 and later renamed to Elite League, the East Bengal team became runners-up four times, failing to win to the title. In 2022, the tournament was redesigned as a U-17 category, after not being held for two seasons due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[35]

Squad

The East Bengal Under-17 squad for 2022-23 season[32]

As of 19 December 2022

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1 GK  IND Arijit Das 2 DF  IND Mohammed Yusuf 3 DF  IND Lakshman Hembram 4 DF  IND Sudipta Mondal 5 DF  IND Haru Roy 6 DF  IND Prajjal Saha 7 MF  IND Rakesh Mali 8 MF  IND Mohammed Yasin 9 MF  IND Gopal Das 10 FW  IND Miraj Mullick 11 FW  IND Debojit Roy

No. Pos. Nation Player 12 DF  IND Ashish Roy 13 GK  IND Nur Alaz Gazi 17 FW  IND Roktim Jana 18 MF  IND Mohammed Afjal 19 MF  IND Tuhin Das 20 FW  IND Biki Santra 21 GK  IND Rangan Bhattacharya 22 MF  IND Ranit Das 24 FW  IND Ajay Sahani 25 DF  IND Irfan Sekh 26 FW  IND Mocha Irom

Coaching Staff

As of 19 December 2022

Role	Name
Head Coach	Tarun Dey

The under-15 team participates in the Elite Youth League. The team is coached by Chandan Kumar Ray.[49]

Squad

The East Bengal Academy Under-15 squad for 2019–20 season

As of 26 July 2019

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1  IND Firaz Molla 2  IND Avigit Hansda 3  IND Susobhan Naskar 4  IND Shafik Sk. 5  IND Sagar Porel 6  IND Shib Sundar Tudu 7  IND Akhay Dey 8  IND Chiranjit Ghosh 9  IND Kinkar Golui 10  IND Rupam Biswas 11  IND Jit Halder 12  IND Soumyadip Jyoti 13  IND Sagnik Ray 14  IND Toufik Islam

No. Pos. Nation Player 15  IND Argha Manna 16  IND Rohit Singh 17  IND Tohit Laskar 18  IND Baburam Mandi 19  IND Ajibur Rahaman Molla 20  IND Tritam Lodh 21  IND Rajkumar Kisku 22  IND Silton Bhattacharjee 23  IND Ayan Das 24  IND Mohammad Taha Tanvir 25  IND Barun Sarma 26  IND Sattwick Mandal 27  IND Preetam Roy 28  IND Kaioum Ali

Matches at the 2007 Nike Premier Cup

  Win   Draw   Loss

Manchester United U15 v East Bengal U15

1 August 2007 Group stage	Manchester United U15	5–0[53]	East Bengal U15	Manchester
09:30 BST	Nicholas Jackson 11' David Mellor 17', 28', 38' Rory Gorman 20'	Report		Stadium: Carrington

Shandong Luneng U15 v East Bengal U15

1 August 2007 Group stage	Shandong Luneng U15	3–0[54]	East Bengal U15	Manchester
14:30 BST	??	Report		Stadium: Carrington

FK Austria Wien U15 v East Bengal U15

2 August 2007 Group stage	FK Austria Wien U15	2–0[55]	East Bengal U15	Manchester
09:30 BST	David 11' Christoph 15'	Report		Stadium: Carrington

AS Roma U15 v East Bengal U15

2 August 2007 Group stage	AS Roma U15	2–0[56]	East Bengal U15	Manchester
15:30 BST	Mattia Montini 2', 42'	Report		Stadium: Carrington

East Bengal U15 v Bukit Jalil U15

3 August 2007 17-20th Semi Final	East Bengal U15	3–1[57]	Bukit Jalil U15	Manchester
09:30 BST	Suprovan Dhar 4' Ajoy Ray 7', 20'	Report	Fouzan 30'	Stadium: Carrington

East Bengal U15 v Central United U15

3 August 2007 17-20th Final	East Bengal U15	0–0[7] (3–5 p)	Central United U15	Manchester
11:30 BST		Report		Stadium: Carrington
	Penalties
	Rakesh Roy Supravan Dhar Joydeb Chakraborty Pintu Dutta

The under-13 team participates in the Elite Youth League. The team is coached by former India International and East Bengal FC legend Tarun Dey.[58]

Squad

The SC East Bengal Academy Under-13 squad for 2019-20 season

As of 26 July 2019

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Pos. Nation Player 1  IND Apu Palian 2  IND Ankur Adhikary 3  IND Jishan Molla 4  IND Rajibul Halder 5  IND Toufik Alam 6  IND Avijit Paul 7  IND Gazanfar Moin 8  IND Saranya Samaddar 9  IND Abir Ali 10  IND Avijit Sarkar 11  IND Rohan Das 12  IND Tuhin Sardar

No. Pos. Nation Player 13  IND Debashis Bera 14  IND Mohammed Soyab Khan 15  IND Souptik Chakraborty 16  IND Soumojit Das 17  IND Julfikar Gazi 18  IND Sunandan Majhi 19  IND Suranya Samaddar 20  IND Md Azhar 21  IND Sayan Roy 22  IND Hasibul Mondal 23  IND Raj Maity 24  IND Krishnapada Biswas

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