| Club: | East Bengal |
| Season: | 2008–09 |
| Manager: |  Monoranjan Bhattacharya Stanley Rozario Subhash Bhowmick |
| Mgrtitle: | Head-Coach |
| Chairman: | Dr Pranab Dasgupta |
| Chrtitle: | President |
| Stdtitle: | Ground |
| Stadium: | Salt Lake Stadium Barasat Stadium East Bengal Ground |
| League: | I-League |
| League Result: | 6th |
| League2: | Calcutta Football League |
| League2 Result: | 3rd |
| Cup1: | Federation Cup |
| Cup1 Result: | Semi-finals |
| League Topscorer: | Yusif Yakubu (11) |
| Season Topscorer: | Sunil Chhetri (13) |
| Pattern B1: | _EastBengal_08_09_Home |
| Leftarm1: | FFC90E |
| Rightarm1: | FFC90E |
| Shorts1: | 000000 |
| Socks1: | FF0000 |
| Pattern B2: | _EastBengal_09_10_Away |
| Pattern La2: | _EastBengal_09_10_Away |
| Pattern Ra2: | _EastBengal_09_10_Away |
| Pattern So2: | _goldtop |
| Leftarm2: | ffffff |
| Body2: | ffffff |
| Rightarm2: | ffffff |
| Shorts2: | 000000 |
| Socks2: | ffffff |
| Prevseason: | 2007–08 |
| Nextseason: | 2009-10 |
The 2008–09 season was East Bengal's 2nd season in the I-League and 89th season in existence.
| Competition | First match | Last match | Final position |
|---|---|---|---|
| Calcutta Football League | 14 July 2008 | 12 September 2008 | 3rd |
| I-League | 26 September 2008 | 16 April 2009 | 6th |
| Federation Cup | 11 December 2008 | 18 December 2008 | Semi-finals |
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See main article: Calcutta Football League.
East Bengal finished the 2008 Calcutta Premier Division in 3rd place with 25 points from 14 matches behind champions Mohun Bagan and runners-up Mohammedan Sporting.[1] [2]
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See main article: 2008–09 I-League.
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See main article: 2008 Indian Federation Cup.
East Bengal started the Federation Cup campaign as defending champions and was allotted into Group C alongside JCT, New Delhi Heroes and Sporting Club de Goa. East Bengal won all the group matches and reached the semi-finals where they lost to their arch-rivals Mohun Bagan in the penalty shoot-out after the game ended 1 - 1 in regulation time.[3] [4]
Players with no appearances are not included in the list.
| Appearances for East Bengal in 2008–09 season | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. | Pos. | Nat. | Name | CFL | I League | Fed Cup | Total | ||||
| Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | Apps | Starts | ||||
| Goalkeepers | |||||||||||
| 24 | GK | | 4 | 4 | 13 | 13 | 1 | 1 | 18 | 18 | |
| 1 | GK | | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 18 | 17 | |
| 21 | GK | | Avijit Ghosh | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 31 | GK | | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | |||||
| Defenders | |||||||||||
| 19 | DF | | 4 | 4 | 22 | 22 | 3 | 2 | 29 | 28 | |
| 26 | DF | | 4 | 4 | 21 | 20 | 4 | 4 | 29 | 28 | |
| 3 | DF | | 10 | 8 | 19 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 33 | 29 | |
| 29 | DF | | 10 | 10 | 18 | 18 | 4 | 4 | 32 | 32 | |
| 22 | DF |  | 9 | 8 | 14 | 14 | 3 | 3 | 26 | 25 | |
| 27 | DF | | 3 | 3 | 13 | 13 | 0 | 0 | 16 | 16 | |
| 2 | DF | | 6 | 6 | 9 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 14 | |
| 5 | DF | | 9 | 8 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 10 | |
| 17 | DF | | Jeevan Singh | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 3 | ||
| 20 | DF | | 4 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 6 | 5 | |||
| 16 | DF | | Saheb Ali Mondal | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||
| 33 | DF | | 5 | 3 | 5 | 3 | |||||
| 12 | DF | | 7 | 7 | 7 | 7 | |||||
| Midfielders | |||||||||||
| 7 | MF | | 10 | 9 | 20 | 14 | 4 | 4 | 34 | 27 | |
| 14 | MF | | 9 | 9 | 17 | 13 | 4 | 4 | 30 | 26 | |
| 22 | MF | | 7 | 7 | 17 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 28 | 16 | |
| 8 | MF | | 2 | 2 | 16 | 15 | 2 | 2 | 20 | 19 | |
| 9 | MF | | 11 | 7 | 10 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 25 | 9 | |
| 18 | MF | | 10 | 8 | 10 | 8 | |||||
| 28 | MF | | 13 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 24 | 14 | |
| 6 | MF | | 6 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 2 | |||
| 15 | MF | | Dharamjit Singh | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 1 | ||
| 23 | MF | | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |||
| Forwards | |||||||||||
| 12 | FW | | 21 | 21 | 4 | 4 | 25 | 25 | |||
| 11 | FW | | 5 | 5 | 17 | 17 | 4 | 4 | 26 | 26 | |
| 25 | FW | | Parveen Kumar | 12 | 3 | 8 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 23 | 6 |
| 10 | FW | | 13 | 13 | 5 | 1 | 18 | 14 | |||
| 30 | FW |  | 7 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 9 | 5 | |||
| 32 | FW | | Goutam Kujur | 5 | 3 | 3 | 0 | 8 | 3 | ||
| Goals for East Bengal in 2008–09 season | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | Name | CFL | I League | Fed Cup | Total | ||||
| 1 | 11 | FW | | 2 | 9 | 2 | 13 | ||
| 2 | 12 | FW | | 11 | 0 | 11 | |||
| 3 | 19 | DF | | 0 | 5 | 0 | 5 | ||
| 4 | 9 | MF | | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 | ||
| 25 | FW | | Parveen Kumar | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 | ||
| 6 | 10 | FW | | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||
| 22 | MF | | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | |||
| 8 | 3 | DF | | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 18 | MF | | 2 | 2 | |||||
| 30 | FW | | 2 | 0 | 2 | ||||
| 11 | 5 | DF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 14 | MF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 22 | DF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 26 | DF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 27 | DF | | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 28 | MF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| 29 | DF | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |||
| Own goals | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |||||
| Total | 21 | 31 | 5 | 57 | |||||