Subhas Bhowmick, the footballer they called “Bulldozer” on the Maidan as he ripped through the opposition on the right wing, couldn’t bulldoze his way past health complications as he breathed his last early on Saturday morning.

Bhowmick, who played for and coached both Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, was 71 and is survived by wife Shukla, a daughter and a son.

Bhowmick had been undergoing dialysis for the past three-and-a-half months and had been admitted to a private nursing home with a chest infection a week ago after contracting Covid-19. Bhowmick’s last rites were performed at the Nimtala crematorium.

“I lost a dear friend,” his club and India teammate Shyam Thapa told The Telegraph. “We had such a lovely time during our playing days. Bhombol (as Bhowmick was known) was my first roommate in the India camp for the 1970 Merdeka Cup (in Kuala Lumpur) and it was he who broke the news to me when we both got selected. I can’t tell you how happy we were. We hugged each other in joy. Then we won the bronze in the Asian Games (Bangkok, 1970). He was a gutsy, dashing and daring footballer. He did not know what fear was. Till his last days, Bhombol had that devil-may-care attitude,” said Thapa, whose last meeting with Bhowmick was at a function a few months ago.

Merdeka was a happy hunting ground for Bhowmick who scored a hat-trick in India’s 5-1 win over Philippines in the 1971 tournament.

“It’s a great injustice that I could not pay my last respects to my great friend. I thought of going to the Maidan and paying my tribute. I did not know he was hit by Covid-19,” an emotional Thapa, who also scored, along with Mohammed Habib, in that Merdeka romp, said.

Thapa recalled the part Bhowmick played in his now legendary “bicycle kick” overhead goal against East Bengal in the 1978 derby. “His centre from the midfield went to Habib who headed it for me and the rest is history,” Thapa reminisced.

Born in Katihar on October 2 in 1950 — Bhowmick always made it a point to highlight this connection with Mahatma Gandhi — he joined East Bengal from Rajasthan Club as a starry-eyed 19-year-old in 1969. During his staggered tenure at the red and gold, Bhowmick scored a total of 83 goals.

For Mohun Bagan, he notched up one more, 84. In the 1976 Calcutta league, he scored 18 goals to help Mohun Bagan, then coached by his mentor PK Banerjee, win the crown after six years. “Jyotish Chandra Guha (East Bengal secretary) and PK Banerjee are two names I respect most,” the chain-smoking Bhowmick had told this writer last July during an hour-long interview during which he lit up seven cigarettes.

It was a habit he couldn’t give up — as he recalled, Guha had told him in 1969 that if he couldn’t quit, he should at least switch to an expensive brand.

Bhowmick’s coaching career started by chance. The footballer, who had quit in 1979, had been writing for a Bengali weekly as an expert when he was sought out by then IFA top boss Pradyut Datta who offered him the job to manage Bengal.

His initial stint as coach, of Bengal, India, Mohun Bagan and East Bengal, was forgettable and he decided to re-invent himself, thinking how his guru PK would have strategised.

Bhowmick came into his own as a coach when he took charge of East Bengal again in the early 2000s. Those were the days when East Bengal were dominating Indian club football and Bhowmick made winning a habit.

His crowning glory came when East Bengal won the 2003 Asean Cup defeating Thai club BEC Tero Sasana (now Police Tero FC) in the final. That remains the best performance by an Indian club outside the subcontinent.

Still, managing personalities like Bhaichung Bhutia, Mike Okoro, Douglas da Silva, Debjit Ghosh, Alvito D’Cunha, Mahesh Gawli or Dipak Mondal was not an easy task. Again, for Bhowmick, PK was the reference point. “I used to think how Pradipda would deal with certain situations,” Bhowmick had said.

Bhowmick’s refusal to get the mandatory coaching licence, though, cost him dearly. With the advent of ISL and I-League, clubs started relying more on licence-holding coaches.

Still, he found a job with East Bengal as a technical director during the latter part of the 2017-18 season and was at the helm till Alejandro Menendez took over as head coach in October 2018.

Like many larger-than-life personalities, Bhowmick too had his share of controversies, In 2005, when he was an employee of Central Excise working in the anti-evasion department, Bhowmick was arrested for allegedly accepting a bribe from a businessman. He was found guilty by a special CBI judge, who handed him a three-year jail sentence.

Bhowmick was granted bail. “That was his lowest point. His reputation was tarnished,” a friend, who did not wish to be named, said.

If the episode hurt, he never spoke about it. As Bhowmick maintained, he never had any regrets, except wishing he had “more discipline” in his playing days.

Bhowmick lived life king size and football was his life.