Former goalkeeper with Mohun Bagan and East Bengal and BJP politician from West Bengal Kalyan Chaubey on Friday, 2 September bagged the president title for the All India Football Federation (AIFF). Chaubey became the first player in the federation’s 85-year history to become the president.
Kalyan Chaubey, 45, defeated the iconic Baichung Bhutia, for 33-1, in a result that was expected from 2 September’s elections. Out of the 34 state association representatives, who met in Delhi last week, 28 have pledged their support to the former India goalkeeper for the AIFF president’s post.
The ‘Sikkimese Sniper’ Baichung Bhutia, also 45, could not even get his state association representative as proposer or seconder for filing his nomination papers.
Karnataka Football Association president N A Haris, a sitting Congress MLA, won the election for the lone post of vice president, beating Manvendra Singh of Rajasthan FA.
Arunachal Pradesh’s Kipa Ajay beat Gopalakrishna Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh for the treasurer’s post.
Kosaraju and Manvendra proposed and seconded Bhutia.
All the 14 candidates who had filed nominations for as many executive committee members’ posts were elected unopposed.
Who is Kalyan Chaubey?
In 1995, Chaubey graduated from Tata Football Academy and started playing as a goalkeeper. He won the award – “Indian Goalkeeper of the Year” – in 1997–98 and 2001–02.
He was member of the Indian teams at U-17 Asian Youth Championship 1994 in Iran and U-20 Asian Youth Championship 1996 in South Korea in 1996, the senior Indian national team from 1999 to 2006.
He was part of the Indian team that won the SAFF Championship thrice. He played the National Championship (Santosh Trophy) for five different states of Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa, Punjab and Maharashtra. He played for Mohun Bagan AC, East Bengal FC, Salgaocar SC, Mahindra United, JCT Phagwara, and Mumbai FC as a goalkeeper. He had a short loan spell at Bangladesh Muktiyodha, Dhaka. He also played for Bengal Mumbai from 1999 to 2001.
In 2002, he trialed for the German club 2. Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC, and Verbandsliga Württemberg outfit VfR Heilbronn.
After his retirement as footballer, he had a brief modelling career. He then took over as the CEO of Mohun Baagan Academy from 2010 to 2013. He was also a co-ordinator for the GOALZ Project- 2012, which was developed by Kolkata Police and British Council for the underprivileged children.
In 2015, he turned to politics and joined Bhartiya Janta Party, and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal in 2019.
Kalyan Chaubey lost the last parliamentary election for the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal, never played for the India senior team though he was in the squad on few occasions.
He, however, played for India in age-group international tournaments. He was also a former goalkeeper at both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.
In fact, Bhutia and Chaubey were one-time teammates at East Bengal.
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