East Bengal fans around the world is celebrating the Silver Jubilee of the famous Diamond Derby, 1997 Federation Cup semifinal between rivals East Bengal and Mohun Bagan.
In the land of Indian sports, cricket’s popularity reigns supreme. But anyone in India on the day of an East Bengal v Mohun Bagan match may differ.
The Kolkata Derby between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan is the oldest footballing rivalry in Asia with 100-years’ worth of rich history.
Even FIFA considers it to be amongst one of the most iconic rivalries in the world, in the same vein as the El Clasico (Barcelona vs Real Madrid), North West Derby (Manchester United vs Liverpool), the Old Firm derby (Rangers vs Celtics), the Merseyside Derby (Liverpool vs Everton), the Milan Derby (AC Milan vs Inter Milan) and others.
The 1997 Federation Cup semi-final between East Bengal and Mohun Bagan saw over 131,000 spectators at the Salt Lake Stadium with more waiting outside. It’s still the most-attended sporting event in India. It can also being said the most memorable Kolkata derby of all. Bhaichung Bhutia, took centre stage, scoring a hat-trick as East Bengal triumphed 4-1 in the semi-final of the Federation Cup. The battle royal of Indian football was taken to a new level by the most powerful coaching rivalry of Indian football – P.K Banerjee vs Amal Dutta. The match marked the vanquishing of the wildly hyped ‘Diamond System’.
Amal Dutta, infamous for his colourful pre-match comments, had called Baichung “chung chung” and Samuel Omollo as “omelette”. While P.K Banerjee, the shrewd motivator that he is, used his ‘Vocal Tonic” for these comments to fire up his players.
Such was the hype of the match that every generation speaks about the match. Even, Bhaichung Bhutia after retirement in an interview said “4-1 Kolkata derby win my favourite East Bengal memory”
