Former India football captain Carlton Chapman passed away on Monday. He was 49.
As per goal.com, he died reportedly after suffering a heart failure in Bengaluru. Chapman, a product of the Tata Football Academy (TFA), was one of the leading midfielders in the country during his playing days. He joined TFA in 1990 and three years later, he joined East Bengal and scored a hat trick for them against Al Zawra of Iraq in Asian Cup Winners Cup.
During his spell at JCT Mills which started in 1995, the team won 14 tournaments. After one season with FC Kochin in 1997-98, Chapman returned to East Bengal in 1998. The team won the National Football League under his captaincy in 2001, before he announced his retirement from professional football. For India, He played as a midfielder between between 1995 and 2001 and also captained the side.
Following his retirement, Chapman coached the TFA team, then in ILeague 2nd Division, from 2002 to 2008. He was signed in December 2002 on a one-year contract as an assistant to head coach Ranjan Choudhary and assistant coach Vijay Kumar.
In December 2017, Chapman was appointed the Technical Director of the Kozhikode-based Quartz International Football Academy. “Carlton Chapman was like a younger brother to me. We were practically family,” says his former teammate IM Vijayan, who had played with the former midfielder for both club (JCT) and India.