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Fred Pugsley
Personal information
Full name Fred Pugsley
Place of birth Rangoon, Burma, British India
Date of death 1958
Place of death Burma
Position(s) Forward
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
Rangoon Customs
1942–1945 East Bengal (48[1])
1944–1945 Bengal
International career
1938–1948 Burma XI
*Club domestic league appearances and goals

Fred Pugsley was an Anglo-Burmese football player, who played primarily as a forward and achieved fame and popularity during his days in Indian club East Bengal FC.[2][3] He was born in Rangoon, Burma, a British colony, where football is one of the popular sports. He began his football career in an amateur league club in Rangoon during the late 1930s. He is considered as the first ever foreign signing by an Indian football club.[4][5]

Personal life

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Pugsley was born in an Anglo-Burmese family in British controlled Burma. In his childhood days, he chose football as his love and later joined a local Rangoon-based amateur club during the late 1930s. At the beginning of the Second World War, Burma was still a British colony from 1939 to 1942 and was attacked by the Japanese forces simultaneously. Pugsley faced tremendous helplessness in his homeland before moving to neighbouring country India in 1942.[6]

It was not an easy journey. The refugees had to travel for almost 500 kilometres entirely on foot, through dense forests, over mountains and across rivers. Several of them perished on the way and many of the ones who survived were injured or seriously ill. Pugsley and his family survived, but were essentially in a land which was foreign to them; they had never visited India before and didn't know anybody there and had no jobs to feed themselves.

Luckily for Pugsley, his reputation as a footballer earned him a job in Burnpur at the Indian Iron and Steel Company, which was majority-owned by Sir Birendranath Mookerjee, who later became president of East Bengal's arch-rival Mohun Bagan Club.[4]

Pugsley returned to Burma in 1946 with his family after the war. He also worked as an employee in Rangoon Customs.[7] He died in 1958.[4]

Club career

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Holding the hands of his wife and daughter, Pugsley literally walked down to Calcutta (now Kolkata). He was a reputed player in Rangoon (now Yangon), but had no friends in India. All he knew were few officials in East Bengal Club since the red and yellow team had toured Burma a few years ago to play some exhibition matches. Extremely ill because of the inhuman exhaustion he suffered while running away from his country, a frail looking Pugsley requested East Bengal club officials to try him out for their team.[8]

East Bengal captain Paritosh Chakraborty and Mohun Bagan captain Anil Dey shaking hands watched by two men in front of a crowd.
1945 IFA Shield Final – East Bengal and Mohun Bagan captains before the match, in which, Pugsley scored the lone goal.

The club officials were hesitant. First, East Bengal had never included a foreigner before.[9] And more importantly, Pugsley's poor health was surely a cause of worry. They reluctantly fielded him in three matches and when Pugsley started vomiting midway through the third, he was withdrawn promptly for the season. But it was only the beginning of an unbelievable success story. To cut the long story short, the Burmese striker recovered soon and went down in the history as one of East Bengal's greatest strikers.[10][11][12]

In the 1945 season,[13] East Bengal won their first "double" in domestic football – they won both the Calcutta Football League and IFA Shield. In the Shield final, East Bengal beat their traditional rivals Mohun Bagan AC by a solitary goal. The second-half strike came from the boot of Pugsley. It was an epoch-making achievement in East Bengal history, something the club fans could never forget.

Indian football had rarely seen a goal-machine like Pugsley.[14][15] In a Rovers Cup match, East Bengal struck 11 goals, Pugsley scored eight of them. While representing Bengal football team in Santosh Trophy (there was no rule those days against playing foreigners in state teams), he scored seven goals in the 7–0 rout of Rajputana.[16]

His thundering left footers left may goalkeepers spending sleepless nights before he decided to return to his country after the war.[17] He scored a total of 48 goals for East Bengal.[18][19]

International career

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Pugsley represented Burma during its maiden international tour to India in 1938, where they played against India and IFA XI representative sides. They also played against the major Calcutta clubs Mohun Bagan and East Bengal.[20] He scored two goals in the match against the India XI side on 30 May 1938 at Calcutta. After the War, he also returned for a national team tour to India in 1948 and played against the IFA XI side and the major Calcutta clubs.

Goalscoring records

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  • Most goals in a single match: (8 goals) for East Bengal (vs BCLI Rail), 1945 Rovers Cup[21][22]
  • He also holds the unique record of scoring 8 goals in a single match against B.C.L.I Railways in the 1945 Rovers Cup match, which is till date the most goals scored by an individual in a single match in Indian football.[15][23]

Honours

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East Bengal

Bengal

Individual

See also

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Further reading

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  • Roy, Gautam (1 January 2021). East Bengal 100. Allsport Foundation. ISBN 978-8194763109.
  • Kapadia, Novy (2017). Barefoot to Boots: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Penguin Random House. ISBN 978-0-143-42641-7.
  • Martinez, Dolores; Mukharji, Projit B (2009). Football: From England to the World: The Many Lives of Indian Football. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-138-88353-6. Archived from the original on 2 July 2022.
  • Dineo, Paul; Mills, James (2001). Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora. London, United Kingdom: Frank Cass Publishers. p. 33. ISBN 978-0-7146-8170-2. Archived from the original on 25 July 2022.
  • Chatterjee, Partha. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Post-colonial Histories (Calcutta: Oxford University Press, 1995).
  • Nath, Nirmal (2011). History of Indian Football: Upto 2009–10. Readers Service. ISBN 9788187891963. Archived from the original on 22 July 2022.
  • Goswami, Ramesh Chandra (1963). East Bengal Cluber Itihas (in Bengali). Kolkata: Book Garden.
  • Bandyopadhyay, Santipriya (1979). Cluber Naam East Bengal (in Bengali). Kolkata: New Bengal Press.
  • Chattopadhyay, Hariprasad (2017). Mohun Bagan–East Bengal (in Bengali). Kolkata: Parul Prakashan.
  • D'Mello, Anthony (1959). Portrait Of Indian Sport. P R Macmillan Limited, London.

References

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  1. ^ Roy, Gautam; Ball, Swapan (2007). "East Bengal Football Club – Famous Players". www.eastbengalfootballclub.com. Archived from the original on 21 February 2009. Retrieved 25 February 2009.
  2. ^ "PUGSLEY". East Bengal the Real Power. 13 November 2020. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  3. ^ "One hundred years of East Bengal: A century of struggle and accomplishments". theworldsportstoday.com. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 12 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b c Basu, Jaydeep (15 April 2020). "Fred Pugsley: The Anglo-Burmese Refugee Who Helped Shape the East Bengal-Mohun Bagan Rivalry". newsclick.in. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  5. ^ "Foreign recruits in Indian football – A short recap". indianfooty.net. 13 June 2013. Archived from the original on 21 March 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  6. ^ Das Sharma, Amitabha (1 August 2020). "ISL 2020-21 news: One hundred years of East Bengal". sportstar.thehindu.com. Sportstar. Archived from the original on 25 January 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  7. ^ "Evacuee List, Burma 1942 — "The Trek Out of Burma"". angloburmeselibrary.com. The Anglo-Burmese Library. 2009. Archived from the original on 29 September 2022. Retrieved 24 May 2019.
  8. ^ "Indian football: Fred Pugsley, Chima Okorie, Ranti Martins – the foreign strikers who shone in India". Scroll.in. 25 January 2021. Archived from the original on 14 May 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  9. ^ It is only befitting that East Bengal, once taunted as a "refugee club" by one of its former opponents, signed Fred Pugsley as their first ever foreign player – an actual wartime refugee immigrant who went on to shine for his team and show the fans what a talented immigrant is capable of if given the proper opportunities
  10. ^ "A century of excellence: East Bengal's greatest hits". ESPN. August 2020. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  11. ^ Banerjee, Ritabrata (16 May 2020). "Indian Football - The 10 best foreigners to have played for East Bengal". Goal. Archived from the original on 14 February 2021. Retrieved 27 June 2021.
  12. ^ soumen78 (31 March 2016). "List of Foreign Players to Play for East Bengal Club from 1942 – East Bengal Club, India – Records, Funs and Facts". Eastbengalclubrecords.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 19 October 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2018.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ^ "TEAM ARCHIVES — East Bengal FC". Archived from the original on 9 June 2019. Retrieved 13 May 2020.
  14. ^ Gupta, Shirshaditya (13 November 2020). "Fred Pugsley — The Greatest". East Bengal the Real Power. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 25 June 2021.
  15. ^ a b Media Team, SC East Bengal (24 April 2021). "Fred Pugsley: East Bengal's first foreign player". SC East Bengal. Archived from the original on 24 April 2021. Retrieved 2 July 2021.
  16. ^ Kapadia, Novy (27 May 2012). "Memorable moments in the Santosh Trophy". sportskeeda.com. Sportskeeda. Archived from the original on 12 April 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  17. ^ "EAST BENGAL CLUB, INDIA – RECORDS, FUNS AND FACTS". Wordpress.com. 31 March 2016. Archived from the original on 28 January 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  18. ^ Sen, Debayan (1 August 2020). "A century of excellence: East Bengal's greatest hits". ESPN. Archived from the original on 24 June 2021. Retrieved 24 June 2021.
  19. ^ Chatterjee, Sayan (6 April 2021). "Top 5 foreign footballers to have played in India". Archived from the original on 27 June 2021. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  20. ^ "Jugantar. (31 May 1938)". Endangered Archives Programme: British Library. p. 11. Retrieved 20 January 2024.
  21. ^ "EAST BENGAL CLUB, INDIA – RECORDS, FUNS AND FACTS". eastbengalclubrecords.wordpress.com. Archived from the original on 28 June 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
  22. ^ "From the History Book". The All India Football Federation. 27 May 2012. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 18 December 2016.
  23. ^ "From the History Book". The All India Football Federation. 27 May 2012. Archived from the original on 21 December 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2021.
  24. ^ "India - List of Calcutta/Kolkata League Champions". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 2 August 2020. Retrieved 23 March 2021.
  25. ^ "India - List of IFA Shield Finals". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 31 October 2012. Retrieved 6 February 2019.
  26. ^ "Santosh Trophy Winners". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 18 September 2021. Retrieved 7 March 2021.
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