Kolkata: Players turning musicians is not an uncommon sight in the world of sports, with the likes of John McEnroe (seven times Grand Slam winner), Bernie Williams (former Baseball player) and Six & Out (comprising of five players from the New South Wales Cricket team, including Australian legend Brett Lee) making a fairly successful career in the music industry. Among such prolific names lies a certain Bhuban Chatterjee, unknown to most of the world but a common name across the Maidan football grounds in Bengal.
Once a rowdy goalkeeper, who has turned out for both the Kolkata giants Mohun Bagan and East Bengal as well as Aryan FC in his prime, the 54- year-old now writes songs and often sings them, when not coaching the kids at Shibpur’s Sahayatri club.
He may have retired as a footballer but his love for the game drove him to write songs on football itself. Reliving his glory days as a footballer, the former BNR (Bengal Nagpur Railways) FC custodian spoke of his passion for the game and music, in an exclusive interaction with SportsCrunch on the occasion of his birthday.
“Growing up, I had love for both football and music. Not just a goalkeeper, I was a good singer ans song writer too. I had that talent and moved forward with it,” said the former Tollygunge Agragami goalkeeper, who has penned over 70 songs on football.
For someone who has played with some of the greats of Indian football such as Cheema Okorie, Sudip Chatterjee and Subrata Bhattacharya among others, choosing music as a career seems odd, given so many of his peers are now famous coaches in the Indian circuit.
“Sports has been one topic which has not been explored much by the Indian music industry and that combined with my love for the game, made me write songs on football,” added Bhuban who began his lyricist career with ‘Anya Bhuban’ now a popular football album.
Not limiting himself to the realm of football, Bhuban also explored the vast world of cricket writing songs on the ‘God of cricket’ Sachin Tendulkar. ‘Fearless Fighter’ a title that so rightfully matches with the dominating attitude of the Master Blaster. ‘Unparallel Bhaichung,’ ‘Sabuj Maroon,’ ‘Lal Halud’ and ‘Shob Khelar Shera Football’ are some of his other popular albums.
With an endeavour to spread more love for the game through his songs, Bhuban hopes to make the world a more better place to live, in the second innings of his life.