Salaam's death is end of an era in football

Sixty years ago on December 1, India beat hosts Australia 4-2 in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. It was Indian football’s finest hour as they entered the Olympic semi-finals for the first time. Centre-forward Neville D’Souza’s memorable hat-trick was the first by an Asian player in the Olympic football tournament. Hyderabad’s tall and lanky defender Abdus Salaam was a member of that team.

A couple of days after the 60th anniversary of that memorable win, the lean and gaunt Salaam died at the age of 84. He was bedridden for two years. A generous grant of '5 lakh by former union minister of sports, Sarbananda Sonowal had helped the ailing Salaam during his prolonged illness.

Salaam’s death is like the end of an era. He was one of the eight players from Hyderabad in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics squad. Now there are only three survivors, forwards Zulfiqar and T. Balaram (settled in Kolkata) and defender Ahmed Hussain (who lives in Bengaluru).

Salam first came into the limelight in the 1954 Quadrangular tournament in Kolkata, when in a vital match against Pakistan he shackled their dangerous winger Fakri (who later played club football in England) and enabled India win 3-1.

In club football, Salaam played for Mohammedan Sporting and helped them win the IFA Shield and Kolkata league double crown in 1957, the 1956 Rovers Cup and 1958 DCM tournament. He also represented India in the 1958 Asian Games but soon afterwards retired due to a knee injury and became a coach.

He was a disciplinarian as a coach. Latecomers were made to run laps around the ground and players could not come bare-chested during his theory classes. He coached the India team that finished joint champions of the 1974 Asian Youth Championships and the senior team in the 1983 Nehru Cup in Kochi.

In the new millennium competitive football in Hyderabad is almost non-existent. But in the 1950s football flourished there due to a competitive local league (the first to hold matches of 90 minutes duration), innovative coaching by the late Syed Abdul Rahim and his visionary policies. He created a football culture in the city and Salaam was one of the several who emerged due to the ethos of those times.

Rahim will always be remembered for popularising football in Hyderabad. He organised non-dribbling tournaments so that teams could improve one-touch passing and combination. There were also weaker leg tournaments where a player was only allowed to kick and tackle with his weaker foot so they became two-footed.

For juniors he organised height restricted tournaments, five- a -side and seven- a -side games in local parks. Thus the flow of talent in Hyderabad football was consistent for many years. All the promising players spotted in the local league matches were assembled and given intensive coaching. There were separate coaching camps for sub-juniors, juniors and seniors.

A meticulous man, Rahim set different goals and tasks for various age-group teams in Hyderabad. One group or other of players in Hyderabad was constantly being coached, throughout the year.

This ensured that a stream of talented players emerged from this region and Hyderabad along with Kolkata was the football capital of India in the 1950s.