#4 Shabbir Ali
There are dark-horses, there are fighters against all odds, and then there’s Shabbir Ali. Shabbir began his professional career at the Tata Football Academy in Mumbai in the 1970s. His performances made people’s heads turn and East Bengal, thus, came calling in the late 70s.
Shabbir played as a striker who could do anything with the ball. He was a sharp-shooter, an able header of the ball and a poacher in the box, which means he had all the attributes to be a complete striker. He’s regarded as India’s best player of the 1970s and 1980s.
Shabbir got a call-up to the India U-19 squad in 1974. In the Asian Youth U-19 Cup, India emerged joint victors with Iran, Shabbir scoring 5 goals. He got the call-up to the National Team in the same year and went on to become one of the most prolific scorers in Indian football history.
In the 1976 Merdeka football tournament, Shabbir scored a hat-trick against Indonesia in just 35 minutes, which stands as a national record! Shabbir played 100 matches for the nation, scoring 35 goals. FIFA statistics notify that the striker played 72 matches for the country, scoring 23 goals.
On the club scene, Shabbir left East Bengal for Mohammedan SC, where he rose to the top of his game. The club had one of its most successful stints under him, winning 9 back-to-back tournaments in 1983-84, which included two Federation Cups.
Accolades
Shabbir won the Dhyan Chand Award in 2011, awarded by the Ministry of Sports and Youth Development, Government of India, for which he was nominated before.
Strangely, he never won the Arjuna Award, for which he was nominated thrice. Shabbir has a steely resolve, a fighter’s attitude and nerves of a warrior.
