The 2005–06 season was East Bengal's 10th season in the National Football League and 86th season in existence.
| Club: | East Bengal |
| Season: | 2005–06 |
| Manager: |  Subhash Bhowmick Bikash Panji Philippe De Ridder |
| Mgrtitle: | Head-Coach |
| Chairman: | Dr Pranab Dasgupta |
| Chrtitle: | President |
| Stdtitle: | Ground |
| Stadium: | Salt Lake Stadium East Bengal Ground |
| League: | National Football League |
| League Result: | Runners-up |
| League2: | Calcutta Football League |
| League2 Result: | Runners-up |
| Cup1: | Federation Cup |
| Cup1 Result: | Quarter-Finals |
| Cup2: | IFA Shield |
| Cup2 Result: | Group Stage |
| Cup4: | Durand Cup |
| Cup4 Result: | Group Stage |
| Cup5: | Super Cup |
| Cup5 Result: | Champions |
| League Topscorer: | Bhaichung Bhutia (12) |
| Season Topscorer: | Bhaichung Bhutia (12) |
| Pattern B1: | _EastBengal_05_06_Home |
| Pattern So1: | _2 gold stripes |
| Leftarm1: | FFC90E |
| Rightarm1: | FFC90E |
| Shorts1: | 000000 |
| Socks1: | FF0000 |
| Pattern B2: | _EastBengal_05_06_Away |
| Pattern La2: | _shoulder_stripes_gold_stripes |
| Pattern Ra2: | _shoulder_stripes_gold_stripes |
| Pattern So2: | _2 gold stripes |
| Leftarm2: | FFFFFF |
| Body2: | FFFFFF |
| Rightarm2: | FFFFFF |
| Shorts2: | 000000 |
| Socks2: | FFFFFF |
| Prevseason: | 2004–05 |
| Nextseason: | 2006-07 |
| Competition | First match | Last match | Final position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calcutta Football League | 31 July 2005 | 30 September 2005 | Runners-Up |
| Federation Cup | 19 October 2005 | 23 October 2005 | Quarter-Finals |
| IFA Shield | 24 November 2005 | 1 December 2005 | Semi-Finals |
| Durand Cup | 11 December 2005 | 13 December 2005 | Group Stage |
| National Football League | 10 January 2006 | 15 May 2006 | Runners-Up |
| Super Cup | 27 May 2006 | Champions | |
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See main article: Calcutta Football League.
East Bengal finished the 2005 Calcutta Premier Division as runner-up with 34 points from 14 matches, 6 points behind champions Mohun Bagan.[1]
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See main article: Federation Cup (India).
East Bengal started the Federation Cup campaign in the Pre-Quarter Finals against Air India and won 3 - 1 with goals from Sydney Nkalanga, Dipankar Roy and Mike Okoro. Syed Rahim Nabi scored an own-goal in the dying minutes to give consolation to Air India.[2] In the quarter-final, however, East Bengal lost to Churchill Brothers in the sudden-death after the game ended 0 - 0 after 120 minutes.[3]
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See main article: IFA Shield.
East Bengal was grouped alongside the other two Kolkata Giants Mohun Bagan and Mohammedan Sporting in Group A. East Bengal lost 2 - 3 against Mohammedan Sporting in the opening game.[4] However, in the second game, against arch-rivals Mohun Bagan, East Bengal registered a 4 - 1 win with goals from Chandan Das, Mike Okoro and a brace from Alvito D'Cunha.[5] In the semi-finals, East Bengal faced EverReady and surprisingly lost 2 - 1 with Chibueze Francis Maduako scoring a brace for EverReady after Kalia Kulothungan put East Bengal ahead in the 3rd minute.[6] [7]
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See main article: Durand Cup.
East Bengal was grouped alongside JCT and HAL in Group D. East Bengal won 2 - 0 against HAL in the opening fixture withgoals from RC Prakash and Jatin Singh Bisht.[8] However, they lost 1 - 2 against JCT as they were eliminated from the group stages.[9] [10]
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See main article: 2005–06 National Football League (India).
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See main article: 2006 Indian Super Cup.
Since Mahindra United won both the 2005-06 National Football League and the 2005 Federation Cup, National League runner-up East Bengal faced them in the 2006 Indian Super Cup and won 2 - 1 with goals from Ndem Guy Herve and Alvito D'Cunha.[11]
Players with no appearances are not included in the list.
| Appearances for East Bengal in 2005–06 season | ||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Pos. | Nat. | Name | CFL | NFL | Fed Cup | IFA Shield | Durand Cup | Super Cup | Total | ||||||||
| Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | |||||
| Goalkeepers | ||||||||||||||||||
| 1 | GK | | Naseem Akhtar | 4 | 4 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 16 | 16 | |||||
| 21 | GK | | 4 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 7 | 7 | ||||||||
| 24 | GK | | Rajat Ghosh Dastidar | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 17 | 16 | |||||
| Defenders | ||||||||||||||||||
| 2 | DF | | 5 | 4 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 15 | ||
| 5 | DF | | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 8 | ||||||||
| 12 | DF | | Arun Malhotra | 7 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | 9 | |||||||
| 12 | DF | | 15 | 15 | 15 | 15 | ||||||||||||
| 16 | DF | | 11 | 10 | 11 | 11 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 30 | 28 | ||
| 17 | DF | | Surya Bikash Chakraborty | 4 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 5 | 5 | |||||||||
| 22 | DF | | 5 | 5 | 10 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 19 | 12 | ||||
| 26 | DF |  | Ngassa Guy Martial | 12 | 12 | 1 | 1 | 13 | 13 | |||||||||
| 27 | DF | | Gurpreet Singh | 4 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 7 | 6 | |||||||||
| 29 | DF | | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 27 | 27 | ||||
| DF | | Debkumar Sashmal | 7 | 5 | 7 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| DF | | 7 | 6 | 2 | 1 | 9 | 7 | |||||||||||
| Midfielders | ||||||||||||||||||
| 6 | MF | | 7 | 7 | 9 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 20 | 9 | ||||
| 7 | MF | | 6 | 3 | 15 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 19 | ||||||||
| 8 | MF | | Sasthi Duley | 8 | 8 | 10 | 5 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 22 | 17 | |||||
| 9 | MF | | 7 | 6 | 12 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 23 | 17 | ||||
| 11 | MF | | 8 | 4 | 10 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 13 | ||||||
| 14 | MF | | Chandan Das | 7 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 5 | |||||||
| 18 | MF | | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||||||||
| 19 | MF | | 12 | 11 | 15 | 14 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 30 | 28 | ||||||
| 20 | MF | | Ndem Guy Herve | 13 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 14 | |||||||||
| 27 | MF | | Amandeep Singh | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | |||||||||
| 28 | MF | | 10 | 7 | 17 | 17 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 33 | 27 | ||
| 30 | MF | | Bernard Pires | 5 | 5 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 13 | 10 | |||
| 32 | MF | | Gouranga Dutta | 3 | 1 | 11 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 9 | |||||||
| MF | | 11 | 8 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 14 | 11 | |||||||||
| MF | | Sandip Das | 5 | 5 | 5 | 5 | ||||||||||||
| MF | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 3 | ||||||||||
| Forwards | ||||||||||||||||||
| 10 | FW | 2 | 1 | 9 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 18 | 14 | |||||
| 12 | FW | | 5 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 7 | 3 | ||||||||||
| 15 | FW | | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | ||||||||||||
| 25 | FW | | 8 | 6 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 13 | 9 | ||||||
| FW | 2 | 2 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 7 | 7 | ||||||||||
| Goals for East Bengal in 2005–06 season | ||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | CFL | NFL | Fed Cup | IFA Shield | Durand Cup | Super Cup | Total | ||||
| 1 | 15 | FW | | 12 | 12 | |||||||
| 2 | 19 | MF | | 8 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11 | ||
| 3 | 9 | MF | | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 5 | ||
| 10 | FW | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | ||||
| 5 | 28 | MF | | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 6 | 6 | MF | | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | ||
| 12 | FW | | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||||
| 20 | MF | | Ndem Guy Herve | 2 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
| 9 | 11 | MF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 14 | MF | | Chandan Das | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 22 | DF | | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 25 | FW | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |||
| 32 | MF | | Gouranga Dutta | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 14 | 7 | MF | | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 8 | MF | | Sasthi Duley | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 12 | DF | | Arun Malhotra | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 29 | DF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 30 | MF | | Bernard Pires | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| FW | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||||||||
| MF | | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Own goals | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |||||
| Total | 25 | 25 | 3 | 7 | 3 | 2 | 65 | |||||