It’s fair to say that Kolkata has been a powerhouse of Indian Football for a long time and has produced some top-class players and teams that have competed in the Indian Super League (ISL) and the I-League as well.

Even at RFYS, teams from Kolkata have been dominant in all aspects of football and one such institute from that lot is the Senior Boys team of Gangadharpur Vidyamandir. The team from Kolkata has won the City Championship twice in three seasons and have advanced to the all-important National Qualifiers for the second time in a row. Coming into the quarter-finals of the City Championship undefeated, their fantastic run started when they routed their opponents, Calcutta Vidya Bhaban 11-0 and knocked them out of the Championship. They were in a neck-to-neck battle against Khariberia Vivekanda Vidyapith for the City Championship title. Sushavan Khan came up with the goods for Gangadharpur, scoring twice in the final before a late goal by Khariberia made the situation tense. Gangadharpur showed nerves of steel and managed to win the contest 2-1 to get crowned the City Champions for the second time in a row.

After a successful endeavor in the City Championship of Kolkata, where they only conceded one goal throughout, it seemed like the proceedings ahead would get tougher for them in the East Zone 2 National Qualifiers. They were stacked up against Shyama Prasad Inter College, the Senior Boys Champions of Jamshedpur in their first match. A brilliant first half performance by Niloy Ghosh, the front man of Gangadharpur’s attack, including a hat-trick, saw the Champions of Kolkata completely outplay Shyama Prasad as they clinched a convincing 5-0 win. They played their next match against Sai International School - the Champions of Bhubaneswar. A first half hat-trick by Subhajeet Nayak and a brace each by Indrajit Baskey and Sushavan Khan was all they needed as they handed Sai International School a 7-0 defeat in East Bengal and made their passage to the National Championship in Mumbai.

Over the past two seasons, Gangadharpur Vidyamandir have made their presence felt at the National level with their Junior Boys team qualifying for the National Championship in 2017-18 and now their Senior Boys team, this season might be the one where this consistent and football crazy institute from Kolkata gets its hand on the National Championship trophy. The competition they will face will probably be the toughest, but all the great Champions look ahead to facing stiff competition and Gangadharpur Vidyamandir looks like the team which has all the ingredients to go all the way this time around.

32 best teams from the City Championships will be competing in Mumbai from 29th December – 7th January and all the matches of the National Championship will be live-streamed on our website and Facebook.