Baichung Bhutia celebrated his 100th match appearance for the country by scoring one and setting up another goal in India's 2-1 win over Kyrgyzstan in a round-robin fixture of the Nehru Cup International football tournament in New Delhi, on Sunday. India thus bounced back into a final berth contention in the five-nation tournament after losing to Lebanon 0-1 in the opening match at the Ambedkar Stadium.
FC Perak have signed an upcoming player from Aceh instead of Bhutia, whose contract with EB has been extended till May.
The Indian footballace also urged promising youngsters to venture abroad to fine-tune their skills.
Baichung Bhutia is not amused at the way India teammate Sunil Chhetri was treated by Coventry City and feels the Delhi player's agent could have handled the situation better. "Sunil's agent and Coventry could have done better than give him just a couple of days' trial," Bhutia said in Delhi on Monday.
The ace striker suggested that the AIFF should aim at including 18 or 19 clubs in the NFL in the next five to ten years.
It was a call from his conscience -- a call which urged Bhaichung Bhutia to take mainstream football to his homeland Sikkim.
The AIFF has requested FIFA to make an exception to enable Baichung Bhutia turn out for Malaysian side Perak FC.
The ace striker predicted a "hard game" against BEC Tero Sesana in Saturday's ASEAN Club championship final.
The India football captain hopes to resume playing in a couple of weeks after being sidelined with an injury to his left leg over 45 days.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Tuesday said his government had offered Indian football captain Bhaichung Bhutia to set up his academy in the state.
India's football captain decided to part ways with Mohun Bagan in retaliation to the club's decision to serve him a show cause letter recently for missing practice and an exhibition match in Jalpaiguri.
The Baichung Bhutia co-owned United Sikkim Football club is languishing at the bottom of the I-League table. And faced with a depleting fan following in the small Himalayan state of Sikkim, fear is rife that things might not be hunky dorky.
Reader Romel sent us this picture from Bangalore.
Reader Sameer Sayed sent us a picture of Baichung Bhutia from Hyderabad.
Friends from India's north-east living on the US west coast as well Tibetans attended the funeral of Tshering Bhutia who was killed in a college shootout last week. Ritu Jha reports
The Blue Tigers held their first training session in Vietnam on Monday evening at the Nam Dinh Sports Palace Ground and will have four more full sessions before taking on the hosts on Saturday.
Former captain and the face of Indian football for major part of the last two decades, star striker Bhaichung Bhutia on Wednesday announced his international retirement, drawing curtains on an illustrious 16-year career.
India captain Bhaichung Bhutia will sign a year's 'contract' with East Bengal on Monday, the club's football secretary Santosh Bhattacharya said on Saturday even as the move evoked criticism from Mohun Bagan, who had suspended the ace striker.
On December 21, the United Liberation Front of Asom had issued a similar threat.
Brazilian Carlos Roberto Silva has been named chief coach of the team for the 2007-08 season.
Former India captain Bhaichung Bhutia, who played his farewell match last month, believes that football has a bright future in the country.
India beat Bangladesh by a solitary goal to register their second straight victory in the Nehru Cup football tournament.
Greek first division football club Panionios Athens denied reports that they plan to sign the Indian football ace.
Bhaichung Bhutia scored the solitary goal as Mohun Bagan beat East Bengal 1-0 in their eighth outing of the I-League football tournament.
The former Indian football captain has a new target in the Lok Sabha seat of Darjeeling, but he may not find the going as easy as scoring a goal, says Joel Rai
The AIFF dropped as many as 13 senior players who were part of the 23-member squad for the Asian Cup in Qatar early this year. Most of the youngsters, who were part of the 2012 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying tournament in Malaysia, were named in the probables' list.
He is the lone face of Indian sports in a high-profile gathering of international stars at the Laureus World Sports Awards and football skipper Bhaichung Bhutia on Monday said it is the ultimate honour to be in a crowd that features the likes of the legendary Sir Bobby Charlton, Boris Becker and Patrick Vieira.
To compete with the best in the business, Indian football needs a good club structure, which it does not have at the moment, feels national team skipper Bhaichung Bhutia.
The ace footballer was admitted to a Kolkata hospital after complaining of weight loss.
India's captain says the team has a realistic chance of winning the tournament.
The focus was on "team bonding" for the Indian archery team on Friday following their inspiring show in the qualification round of the Paris Games
Football was not very close to Sunil Chhetri's heart during his days as a bubbly teenager with proclivity for pranks. He was only looking to use the sport as a vehicle to gain entry to a reputed college and continue his education.
India captain and East Bengal forward Bhaichung Bhutia, recovering from a hamstring injury, will take two more weeks to be match fit, the red-and-gold coach Philippe de Ridder said in Kolkata on Thursday.
Election results day wasn't exactly a happy one for sportspersons. Three former India captains - Mohammad Azharuddin, Bhaichung Bhutia and Dilip Tirkey -- suffered heavy defeats in the 2014 Lok Sabha polls even as 2004 Athens Olympics silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore scored a thumping victory.
Star striker Bhaichung Bhutia scored eight minutes from time to guide 10-man East Bengal to a solitary goal win over JCT in their final Group A match and book a berth in the semi-finals of the Federation Cup in Silchar on Sunday.
The All India Football Federation (AIFF) may see nothing wrong in allowing five foreigners in each I-League club from this season, but national football captain Bhaichung Bhutia feels that the new rule will let one too many overseas players to compete in the event.
The elections to 32 assembly constituencies in Sikkim were held simultaneously with the first phase of Lok Sabha elections on April 19.
The ace striker's second-half strike gave the defending champs a 1-0 victory in the NFL.
Indian football captain Baichung Bhutia will play under Michael Ballack or Clarence Seedorf in the 'Goal 4 Africa' charity match in Munich.
