The All India Football Federation (AIFF) on Friday got a former player as its first president in its 85-year history with Kalyan Chaubey beating the legendary Bhaichung Bhutia in the election for the top post. The 45-year-old Chaubey, a former goalkeeper with Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, won 33-1, a result that was expected as former captain Bhutia did not have many supporters in the 34-member voters' list made up of state association representatives. The 'Sikkimese Sniper', also 45, could not even get his state association representative as proposer or seconder for filing his nomination papers.



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Chaubey, a BJP politician who lost the last parliamentary election for the Krishnanagar seat in West Bengal, never played for the India senior team though he was in the squad on few occasions. He, however, played for India in age-group international tournaments. He was also a former goalkeeper at both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal. In fact, Bhutia and Chaubey were one-time teammates at East Bengal. Karnataka Football Association president N A Haris, a sitting Congress MLA, won the election for the lone post of vice president, beating Manvendra Singh of Rajasthan FA. Arunachal Pradesh's Kipa Ajay beat Gopalakrishna Kosaraju of Andhra Pradesh for the treasurer's post. Kosaraju and Manvendra proposed and seconded Bhutia. All the 14 candidates who had filed nominations for as many executive committee members' posts were elected unopposed.


Who is Kalyan Chaubey?



Chaubey graduated from Tata Football Academy in 1995 and became a professional football player through a proper grass-root system. He played as a goalkeeper and won the award – "Indian Goalkeeper of the Year" – in 1997–98 and 2001–02. He was a member of the Indian teams at U-17 Asian Youth Championship 1994 in Iran and U-20 Asian Youth Championship 1996 in South Korea 1996, and the senior Indian national team from 1999 to 2006.


He was part of the Indian team that won the SAFF Championship thrice. He played the National Championship (Santosh Trophy) for five different states Jharkhand, West Bengal, Goa, Punjab and Maharashtra. He played for Mohun Bagan AC, East Bengal FC, Salgaocar SC, Mahindra United, JCT Phagwara, and Mumbai FC as a goalkeeper. He had a short loan spell at Bangladesh Muktiyodha, Dhaka. He also played for Bengal Mumbai from 1999 to 2001. In 2002, he trialled for the German club 2. Bundesliga side Karlsruher SC, and Verbandsliga Württemberg outfit VfR Heilbronn.


After his retirement as a footballer, he had a brief modelling career. He then took over as the CEO of Mohun Bagan Academy from 2010 to 2013. He was also a coordinator for the GOALZ Project- 2012, which was developed by Kolkata Police and British Council for underprivileged children. In 2015, he turned to politics and joined Bhartiya Janta Party, and unsuccessfully contested the Lok Sabha elections from West Bengal in 2019.