Former India captain and now coach Shabbir Ali was yesterday selected as the first-ever Indian footballer to be named for the prestigious Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement.
On a social media platform Shabbir Ali simply wrote, "Thank GOD, I got selected by the Ministry of Sports, Govt. of India for Dhyan Chand Award 2011."
Speaking to PTI Shabbir Ali later said, "It is a great honour for me. I always had faith in the government that my contributions to Indian football would be recognised one day. I thank Allah for the award."
"There are regrets but I don't want to think about them. This is a momentous occasion for me and I think this award will be an inspiration for the next generation of Indian footballers," Shabbir added.
Shabbir Ali was born on January 26, 1956 in Hyderabad; a football hotbed in the 1950s/60s into the early 70s. He started his football with Abbas Union FC then played for Hyderabad Arsenal Club and Andhra Pradesh Special Police before moving to Mumbai to play for Tata Sports Club. Thereafter he left for Kolkata were he would become a household name as striker for East Bengal Club and Mohammedan Sporting Club. In-between he also played for Dhaka Victoria Sports in Bangladesh.
Shabbir Ali has played 110 times for India and scored 35 goals in an international career which was from 1974 to 84. One of his greatest achievements came as the captain of the Indian Youth Team, which was joint winner at the 1974 Asian Youth Cup in Iran.
After he ended his career Shabbir Ali took up coaching. He started off with Mohammedan Sporting Club before coaching a number of Kolkata clubs over the years. In 1995/96 he was Technical Director of the national team before he joined Goans Salgaocar SC in 1997. He had three successful years in Goa as in 1999 Salgaocar would go on to win the National Football League title as the first club from Goa. Thereafter he went on to coach numerous clubs across the country and in the last few years he has been mainly coaching clubs in Kolkata. In the new season he will be coaching Calcutta Port Trust.
Over the years he has coached West Bengal a number of times in the Santosh Trophy. In 2010 he won Bengal their 30th title, but what made it special was the fact that it came after a gap of 11 years. This year he was able to defend the title with a young and rather unknown squad.
My heartiest congratulations to Shabbirda on this achievement!
Twice defending champions Bengal will go into the 66th edition of the National Football Championship for the Santosh Trophy with Shabbir Ali once more as their coach. The 66th Santosh Trophy will be played from May 11 to 27 across Orissa in Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur and Baragarh with Bengal getting a bye into the Quarterfinal League.