Carlton Chapman, a former India football captain, has died.
Chapman, a product of the Tata Football Academy in the early 1990s, joined East Bengal in 1993 and scored a hat-trick in his team’s 6-2 triumph over Iraqi side Al Zawra in the Asian Cup Winners Cup’s first round that year.
Carlton Chapman, a former India football captain who forged a deadly trinity in club football with Bhaichung Bhutia and IM Vijayan in the 1990s, died on Monday after a heart attack in Bengaluru.
He was 49.
We’ve joined WhatsApp. To join, simply click here.
Chapman was admitted to a hospital in Bengaluru on Sunday night and died early this morning.
“I received word from one of Chapman’s friends in Bengaluru that he had died. He died this morning, early. “He was a happy-go-lucky man, always smiling and ready to help others,” Chapman’s former India teammate Bruno Coutinho said from Goa to PTI. Chapman, a dynamic midfielder, captained India from 1995 to 2001, and the country won the SAFF Cup under his captaincy in 1997. He enjoyed two successful club seasons with East Bengal and one with the now-defunct JCT Mills.
Chapman, a product of the Tata Football Academy in the early 1990s, joined East Bengal in 1993 and scored a hat-trick in his team’s 6-2 triumph over Iraqi side Al Zawra in the Asian Cup Winners Cup’s first round that year.
But his best work came after he joined JCT in 1995. alongside the Punjab-based team, Chapman won 14 championships, including the inaugural National Football League in 1996-97, and established a fearsome combination alongside Vijayan and Bhutia.
Chapman later played for the now-defunct FC Kochin. He returned to East Bengal after one season in 1998, and the club won the NFL under his captaincy in 2001. In 2001, he declared his retirement from professional football.
Chapman worked as a coach with I-League 2nd Division club Tata Football Academy, Shillong’s Royal Wahingdoh FC, and Delhi’s Sudeva Moonlight FC before becoming the Technical Director of Quartz International Football Academy in 2017.
