The year is most likely 2009.The political environment of West Bengal was going through an epochal crisis. The reason is certainly not unknown to anyone. At the very end of a long thirty-four-year left-wing era. At that time, an unknown young man came to buy football accessories from Kolkata's Maidan Market. However, it is not a new phenomenon. The Maidan market square is always bustling with thousands of people. But he later became the Bengali match official for the 2024 Next-Gen Cup on foreign soil. Pratik Mandal, a resident of Bamanpukur in Basirhat sub-division of North Twenty-four Parganas, had a rough road to becoming a football referee. Although he came to Maidan Market that day to buy playing materials, his focus was on the 'Calcutta Referees Association'. Suddenly he had a burning desire to choose refereeing as his career. This young man in his twenties did not have to look back.
Official Footsteps into the Refereeing career
Pratik Mandal was registered by courtesy of the then referees association secretary Kamal Sarkar. But when he started his journey as a professional match official, Udayan Halder took over the secretary’s responsibility. Several Bengali referees have established themselves at the Calcutta Maidan as well as at the national level through his hands, Pratik Mandal being one of them. He cited the undeniable contribution of the 'Future India Project' (initiated in 2010 by Shankar Kamleswaram and Col. Gautam Kar, the then AIFF Referencing Director) in establishing himself as a national referee. This initiative by the All India Football Federation set a unique precedent in talent scouting at the grassroots level. Incidentally, Ramachandran Venkatesh, who won the title of India's best referee for the 2023-24 football season, is also a product of this project. In the year of 2015, Prateek was promoted to the level of national referee and in 2016, Prateek got the chance to officiate I-League Second Division matches. Seven years passed after professional matches became official. Until then he did not feel the bitter taste of life's struggle. But, setbacks occurred just as Prateek was embarking on the next phase of his life.
The unknown stories of his struggle
After officiating the first two matches of the 2016-17 I-League season with honours, he got the first big shock of his life. Prateek suffered a back injury while attending a ninety-minute football battle between Pune Football Club - DSK Shivajians in the role of match official. He got injured suddenly during the match. Therefore, the Aizawl-Shillong match of that ongoing season was not conducted by Pratik Mandal. Thus began the dark cloud over the fortunes of his refereeing career. The injury was so severe that he had to be side-lined for around seven to eight months. Football is a body contact game, starting with the players and various people associated with this profession, it is natural that injuries will occur. But when it reaches a critical stage, the physiology of the profession is directly linked to action, and almost all avenues for the man to bounce back are blocked. As he was forced to keep himself away from the football field for nearly two and a half thousand days, his thoughts and feelings were gradually consumed by depression. Needless to say, Pratik almost took the most difficult decision of his life at one point in a suffocating situation. That is, to free himself from the refereeing career and steer life into a different direction.
One of the two well-wishers he mentioned while reminiscing about his plight was Jayanta Banerjee, then Assistant Secretary of the 'Calcutta Referees Association' and Colonel Gautam Kar, Director of Referencing of the contemporary Football Federation of the country. Expressing his gratitude to them, Pratik Mandal said, "I have learnt the ABC of professional refereeing from Jayanta Banerjee sir. He first gave me the opportunity to officiate the sub-division or lower-division matches of various districts. In this context, I have to talk about the Srirampur regional matches. He has selfless contribution in bringing many young Turks to the field. Also, I have never been by the side of an ever-busy man like Gautam sir during my difficult times, I won't forget. Even though the back injury knocked me out of the field, he used to make phone calls to me every weekend to check on my health”. He also said "It was as if the injury never left me. Even though I recovered for a while after rehab, the pain would come back again during the practice session”.
His well-wishers, however, have praised referee Prateek Mandal's determination not to give up, clutching his jaw or biting the ground during tough times. In this context, Jayanta Banerjee, former assistant secretary of the Referees Association, said, "You have to fight for yourself and Pratik has done it with excellence. He became his own strong pole in the days of danger. We just stood by him." He further said "During the time of Covid pandemic, Prateek lost his father Madhusudan Mandal. That was the second major shock in Pratik’s life. According to family sources, he had to take care of his father's cloth business along with match management. His father's sudden death started the business decline. Talking about his past days, Gautam Kar said, "He is one of the most self-willed guys ever I have seen in my life. His dedication, love and hard work towards his profession has taken him to where he is today. I am most impressed by Pratik's foresight in taking the right decisions during the game”.
Career Graph and achievements
