"It was a wonderful experience interacting with you and appreciate the way you have planned and executed the whole publication process within the agreed timelines.”
Subrat SaurabhAuthor of Kuch Woh Pal
Pele pointed to me and said, ‘This man had prevented me from showing my skills to the audience of India,’ with a broad grin on his face.
Football God and Brazilian legend Pele’s words on P.K.Banerjee after the later prevented Pele from beating his Mohan Bagan team in 1977.
Beyond 90 Minutes is a candid heart wrenching autobiography of India’s gifted son P.K.Banerjee, in which he bares it all about his illustrious career as a footballer and then as a coach spanning over six decades. It is a delightful reading for any football follower. The book describes the maestro’s uphill journey in life and is told with all candidness and brutal clarity. It’s an engrossing story of a dream journey for a little boy from pre-independent India who went on and was awarded the FIFA Order of Merit, the highest honor awarded by FIFA.
P.K. Banerjee with Anirban Chatterjee
Pradip Kumar Banerjee or P.K. Banerjee was born on 23rd June 1936 in Jalpaiguri, Bengal Presidency, British India. He won Gold for the country in Djakarta Asian Games in 1962 and captained the Indian team at Rome Olympics 1960. He represented his country in three Asian Games and two Olympics. Recurring injuries forced him to drop out of the national team and subsequently to his retirement in 1967.
He took a FIFA accredited coaching course in Japan and led Indian team to a bronze medal position in 1970 Bangkok Asian Games. Later he joined East Bengal Club to start a very successful club coaching career which spanned the next twenty-five years where he also coached their arch rival Mohan Bagan Club. He became the most successful coach in India winning innumerable trophies for his clubs and hearts of million football fans.
He was one of the first recipients of the award Arjuna Award when it was instituted in 1961. In 1990, he was awarded the prestigious Padma Shri Award. He has been named Indian Footballer of the 20th century by FIFA. He has been awarded the FIFA Order of Merit, the highest honor awarded by FIFA, in 2004. He was awarded the player of the Millennium in 2005 by FIFA. He had also won the International Fair Play Award from the Olympic Committee, a feat that is yet to be repeated by any Indian footballer.
Currently, he lives in Kolkata with his two daughters, Paula and Purna.
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Anirban Chatterjee is a first generation entrepreneur from Kolkata. It was a surprise to all his acquaintance when in 2017, his debut novel Streaks of Dawn was published. It’s an urban romantic fiction in which the author takes the readers on an enthralling journey portraying the life of its main protagonist in his quest of friendship and love and is widely appreciated in literary circle.
He has a true passion and interest for sports, and hence readily agreed to co-author football legend Pradip Kumar Banerjee’s autobiography. After an intense session running over a year, Beyond 90 Minutes is now ready to hit the stand.
Anirban lives in Saltlake, Kolkata with his wife, Mahua, and son, Ankit.
