“My father was fearless,” says Rashid Ahmed, holding his dad’s inexperienced and white jersey.
The valuable household heirloom was introduced again to India in 1936 after one of the crucial exceptional episodes within the historical past of the sport.
The man he describes, Mohammed Salim, was a Calcutta league champion with Mohammedan Sporting Club and the primary footballer from Asia to play in Europe.
His grandson Adil, who spoke alongside along with his father, describes soccer as greater than only a recreation: “In a way, sport was part of India’s freedom struggle. They were playing in the last years of British rule and their performances showed that they were as good as their rulers”.
He provides, “People like my grandfather gave a lot of hope to people in India.”
One of Salim’s largest followers and closest pals, Mohammed Hasheem, labored as a bar tender on a steamship. It was him who persuaded the gifted winger to attempt his luck in Scotland.
When Salim demonstrated his abilities in a particular trial at Celtic Park the coaches have been shortly satisfied they’d a particular expertise. Club director Tom Colgan described him to the newspapers as “undoubtedly a player of fine natural gifts”.
But there was one other downside to be overcome, like most Indian footballers on the time he did not put on boots.
His son Rashid says: “They had to get an official pass from the Committee for him to play with bare feet.”
This was how Salim turned out for his first look in opposition to Galston on 28 August 1936, earlier than 7,000 supporters in what was successfully a reserve match. Even with out footwear, he was the person of the match.
The Scottish Daily Express nicknamed Salim the “Indian juggler” and reported that three of Celtic’s targets within the 7-1 victory over the Ayrshire crew got here from his twinkling toes.
“He balances the ball on his big toe, lets it run down the scale to his little toe, birls it, hops on one foot round defender, then flicks the ball to centre, who has only to send it into goal.”
Salim was picked to play once more in opposition to Hamilton two weeks later, when he scored from a penalty.
“The barefooted Indian biffed the ball hard to the left of the goalkeeper who, although managing to get his hand to it, was totally unable to prevent it going into the net,” reported the Daily Record.
The Indian winger’s solely safety from industrial Scottish defenders was a bandage.
The Daily Record carried an image of him earlier than the Hamilton match having his toes and ankles wrapped by Celtic’s well-known coach Jimmy McMenemy.
His grandson Adil feedback that this was a strong picture, “It would have been unimaginable here. This was before India was released from British rule and you would never see a white person touch the feet of a brown person”.
The message from the dressing room at Parkhead was that everybody was equal once they pulled on a Celtic shirt.
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Salim’s closing match for Celtic was a 3-2 victory over a Partick Thistle XI in a profit match at Petershill Park, on 14 September. The Evening News reported that once more, “Salim was the brightest player afield.”
Celtic has seen sufficient to wish to hold him, however simply 5 days later he left on the identical ship that had introduced him to Glasgow. Along along with his jersey, he carried a pair of white shorts and a gold watch as souvenirs.
Adil says that he was homesick, lacking his household again dwelling and Indian meals.
Instead, it was followers of the all-conquering Mohammedan Sporting Club who bought to take pleasure in his skills on their method to 5 successive Calcutta league titles.
Source: information.sky.com”