East Bengal FC set to begin RFDL 2023 campaign with clash against United SC

Kolkata, 13 March 2023: East Bengal FC have named a 40-member squad for their Reliance Foundation Development League 2023 campaign, which will get underway on March 14 (Tuesday).

The 2023 edition of the RFDL will be held in three phases – National Championship Qualifiers, National Championship Group Stages and National Finals. The top four teams from the tournament will qualify for the annual Next Gen Cup.

The Red & Gold brigade will compete with United SC (March 14 in Barrackpore), New Alipore Suruchi Sangha (March 17 in Naihati), Odisha FC (March 20 in Kalyani), ATKMB FC (March 23 in Naihati), Jamshedpur FC (March 26 in Kalyani) and Mohammedan SC (March 29 in Barrackpore) in the East Zone qualifiers. All the games will begin at 3 PM.

Coach Bino George has named a 40-member EBFC squad for the tournament. He will be assisted by Assistant Coach Archishman Biswas and Goalkeeping Coach Sangram Mukherjee.

According to the league regulations, a maximum of 10 of the 40 players can be registered as U-23 players. Out of them, the club can register up to five U-23 players in the matchday squad, and only three U-23 players will be allowed in the playing XI at all times.

Three players from EBFC’s first team (Himanshu Jangra, Tuhin Das and Athul Unnikrishnan) have been picked for the RFDL, while eight players (Nur Alam Gazi, Haru Roy, Sudipta Mondal, Md Yasin, Rakesh Mali, Md Afjal, Mocha Irom and Miraj Mullick) have been selected from the U-17 squad that participated in the Hero U-17 Youth Cup in December last year.

The squad also contains some players from the Emami East Bengal Reserves team, namely Arpan Polley, Adil Amal, Aditya Patra, Md Nishad, Sanjib Ghosh, Vishnu TM, Dip Saha, Tanmay Das, Lijo K and Jesin TK. The others have been selected on the basis of trials.

A day before the first game against United SC, Coach Bino said, “I’ve coached United SC before. They have a strong youth development system and will be a tough opponent. However, we have a pool of exciting players who are eager to showcase their talent in the six matches. Those who‘ll prove themselves in the RFDL will have good chances of making the first team in the near future.”

SQUAD

Goalkeepers- Bacchu Das, Nur Alam Gazi, Aditya Patra, Md Nishad PP Defenders – Mithun Roy, Souvik Mondal, Rahul Naskar, Avik Ghosh, Satender Paswan, Arpan Polley, Sudipta Mondal, Haru Roy, Adil Amal, Athul Unnikrishnan, Tuhin Das

Midfielders – Bikash Oraon, Rupam Roy, Bapi Barman, Aman CK, Md Roshal PP, Naseeb Rahman, Kush Chhetry, Pritam Sardar, Moni Sankar Adhikari, Shyamal Besra, Mocha Irom, Md Yasin, Md Afjal, Sanjib Ghosh, Vishnu TM, Dip Saha, Tanmay Das, Lijo K

Forwards – Sourav Biswas, Md Rasik CP, Alauddin, Rakesh Mali, Miraj Mullick, Himanshu Jangra, Jesin
TK