By A Joseph Antony
Hyderabad: Largely forgotten by fans and abandoned by the official sport of sports, the achievements made there are by Hyderabad’s Magnificent Seven, a monk for soccer players from Hyderabad, who made up more than half of India’s national soccer team in the fifties. One of the last survivors, Ahmed Hussain ‘Lala, died under the COVID-19 pandemic on Friday morning, 89 years old.
Milestones at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) tell a skewed story, mostly partly for the game in white leaves. No display boats like sports icons on the last day, they shone short but clear and sent India into football at its best hour ever. The beautiful septet almost took their side to the top and fell short in the 1956 Olympic Games semi-finals.
In time, these sure-footed men, steeled by sweat and toil, would fidget and fall under fate, doomed to darkness if not punishment.
In his heyday, Hussain, as a center-half or center, tightly marked his men, and his extremely technical approach let little pass him by. No wonder then that he was able to jump between the top teams of his time, whether Mohun Bagan or Mohammedan Sporting. Despite his distinction in every effort he made as a player, coach or mentor, he never really received a reward or recognition.
Memories, those faithful companions for decades, left him the night of his life as he was overwhelmed by dementia. The death of his older son Aijaz, a few months ago, was a blow he may not have been able to fully compare to.
The trail of his teammates leaving one for the Elysian Fields may have taken its toll as well. Noor Mohammed, Olympic Games in Helsinki (1952) and Melbourne (1956), dies in a slum of Osmanpura, malnourished and plagued by tuberculosis in poverty. Syed Abdus Salam, also a veteran of the same two issues of the four-yearly games, who was bedridden for five years, then breathed his last. Mohd. Zulfakaruddin, baby of the group, which consists of a meager pension, passed away last year.
The time was that many of these footballers had such short cash, that they repaired their football boots on their own to save the shoemaker’s cost. Or the recipe of the biryani they made in their shabby accommodation, which could not be eaten, it would make a restaurant in Delhi famous!
The quote from football historian Novy Kapadia from Hussain’s partner from Melbourne, Noor, speaks poignantly of their plight: ‘Often we had one exercise and then a cup of tea for refreshments. ”And that after many of them played barefoot until they became profitable to buy boots!
“Ahmed Hussain was a gentleman,” recalls former Indian captain Shabbir Ali. When Hussain was technical director and deputy coach of PK Banerjee of the national parties for various tournaments in the 1980s, including the 1982 Asiad, he was very friendly and suggested that he wear his Olympic mantle lightly in Melbourne.
“Kya hona bolo,” (Tell me what you want), Hussain would urge his wards so they could have easy access to him and all ears to what they had to say. “When the Indian group was training in Bangalore, he invited the whole team to his house for dinner,” Ali recalls.
Passing the 10-month soccer coaching course at the National Institute of Sports (NIS), South Center in Bangalore, although very tough, has been made much easier thanks to Ahmed Hussain, Ali, a Dhyan Chand Award-winning, has the best forward in his time recording the fastest hat-trick among the select group of five Indians to make it.
Brahmanand Shankwalkar, who recovered from a compound fracture a year before the 1982 Asiad, caught the attention of coach Dietmar Pfeiffer when he played in Calicut in the Federation Cup. The German, who is considering appealing to the warden for the Asian Games trials, shared his opinion with Hussain.
Hussain not only convinced Pfeiffer of the good goal of teammate Brahmanand, but also used his good offices at the All India Football Federation (AIFF) to ensure the youngster attended the trials. Brahmanand never lived up to Hussain’s expectations when he spotted talent early on, becoming the best guardian ever in India.
Source: The Siasat Daily