Fred Pugsley

Fred Pugsley was an Anglo-Burmese football player, who played primarily as a forward and achieved fame and popularity during his days in Indian club East Bengal FC.

In his childhood days, he chose football as his love and later joined a local Rangoon-based amateur club during the late 1930s.

Luckily for Pugsley, his reputation as a footballer earned him a job in Burnpur at the Indian Iron and Steel Company, which was majority-owned by Sir Birendranath Mookerjee, who later became president of East Bengal's arch-rival Mohun Bagan Club.

All he knew were few officials in East Bengal Club since the red and yellow team had toured Burma a few years ago to play some exhibition matches.

Extremely ill because of the inhuman exhaustion he suffered while running away from his country, a frail looking Pugsley requested East Bengal club officials to try him out for their team.

In the Shield final, East Bengal beat their traditional rivals Mohun Bagan AC by a solitary goal.

After the War, he also returned for a national team tour to India in 1948 and played against the IFA XI side and the major Calcutta clubs.