bengaluru in bengalurus austin town carlton chapman inspired hundreds of youngsters to take up football in kolkata he was the darling of the east bengal fans and in india colours he emerged as a key man alongside bhaichung bhutia and im vijayan going on to don the captains armbandfor chapmans friends across the country mainly in kolkata and bengaluru it came as a big shock when they heard about his death following a heart attack at a city hospital on mondayhis legion of friends will always remember chapman 49 as a smiling bighearted lethal attacking midfielder who excelled after being polished by legendary coach mohammad habib at the tata football academy in their first batch of 1992his batchmate gautam ghosh said chapman joined late after he was spotted during a national youth camp at the sai south centre i was part of the national youth team camp and we were playing practice matches against the sai senior hostel team chapman was their striker and he caught our eye with his speedy runs tfa coach habib sir had asked to look for talent and we recommended his name and soon he was called to join the academy recalled ghosh former india and mohun bagan strikerwe know of his exploits on the pitch but he was much more as a human being he might have just rs 5 in his pocket but if someone asked he would readily give it knowing very well he didnt have anything else ghosh said once during the sikkim gold cup tournament he had a stomach pain and was taken back to jamshedpur he then had to undergo appendix surgery but he was back in action in 2021 daysformer india player noel wilson who followed chapman to tfa said it was chapman who inspired him to dream big i followed his path and he was the inspiration for my success and for many more players in austin town wilson chapmans cousin and now jamshedpur fcs assistant coach told toifrom sai hostel to team indiaafter passing out from st patricks high school chapman joined the sai senior hostel and trained under olympian ahmed hussain the sai boys soon turned out for bdfa clubs and chapman played for southern blues and helped them gain promotion in the late 80swe both turned out for southern blues and helped the team gain promotion to a division said goalkeeper nt nedunchezhian chapmans teammate at saichapman was picked for the karnataka u21 team and from there he graduated to tfa after graduation he first moved to mohammedan sporting before joining east bengal said another bengalurean louis nickson chapmans batchmate at tfachapman never looked back after joining the kolkata giants in 1993 and his hattrick against iraqi club al zawraa in the asian cup winners cup is still fresh in ones memory he was such a brilliant player who could play in the middle and on the right wing where he excelled most that east bengal team had soso somatai shaiza on the left