Walking on Ao's foot steps, it was Sailen Manna who came out as one of the best defender for the team, and was given the team's captaincy in 1951 at Asian Games and led the team to win gold medal, thus started the Indian golden period in football. He later led the team to three Quadrangular Cup from 1952 to 1954 and also captained at the 1952 Olympics and 1954 Asian Games. In 1953, England Football Association rated Manna among "10 Best Skippers of the World" in its yearbook., awarded Padma Shri by Government of India in 1971 and AIFF honoured him as "AIFF Player-of-the-Millennium" in 2000.