Sukhen Dey, a left-back who earned prominence, wearing Prayag United SC (Now United Sports) in 2011 and played regularly for the team for three consecutive seasons, died of a massive heart attack on Friday on duty at his Eastern Railway office. His age was only 35 years!

Sukhen made his debut in the I-League against Sporting Clube De Goa in 2011, and then he did not look back. In the next three seasons, the defender participated in 26 first-class matches for the team.

Then Sukhen switched over to Mohun Bagan’s I-League-winning squad in 2014-2015. They had played under the guidance of Sanjoy Sen in both United SC and Mohun Bagan in 2014-15.

The grief-stricken coach, while remembering Dey, said on Friday, “I am stunned. He was very thin, not at all like a typical defender in appearance. But under my guidance in United SC, Sukhen had a tremendous performance against East Bengal in a match. The Australian forward, Tolgey Ozbey, was made ‘completely disabled’ by Sukhen. He stopped Tolgey’s down-the-flanks run. Sukhen had an excellent sense of the game.”

Nabab Bhattacharya, also stunned with the news, said, “He played for us from the youth level. He was scouted by late Subhas Bhowmick. We were amazed to have seen his football sense despite lacking a typical defender’s physique.”