The All India Football Federation will celebrate June 23, the birthday of legendary player Pradip Kumar Banerjee, India’s captain in the 1960 Rome Olympics and popularly known as Pk, as ‘Aiff Grassroots Day’ to promote the sport throughout the country.

• The Aiff Grassroots Day is in keeping in line with the Strategic Roadmap ‘Vision 2047’, which seeks to increase grassroots participation in the country. The aim is to engage 35 million children in football by 2026 and up to 100 million by 2047, the federation announced on Friday.
• Explaining the reason behind choosing Pk’s birthday, Aiff Secretary General Dr. Shaji Prabhakaran said it is a well-known fact that Pk was an exemplary footballer, who played a pivotal role in India’s historic gold medal triumph in the 1962 Asian Games.
• “However, we often forget Pradip da was a teacher par excellence too. Once he hung up his boots, he took up coaching and for the next 30 years.