Mohammed Salim: The first Indian to play in Europe

Mohammed Salim

He is one of the greatest footballers India has ever produced, he is believed to be the first person from the Indian subcontinent to play in a European club. But,sadly, only very few people know his name. He is none other than Mohammed Salim.

Born in a lower-middle class family in the Metiabruz area of Kolkata, he showed little interest in academics in his childhood. Neither, did his parents have enough funds to teach him in a proper school. However, he showed immense talent in football from a very young age. Mohun Bagan’s triumph of the IFA Shield in 1911 also played a huge role in bringing him to professional football.

In the 1920s, when football was gaining extraordinary popularity, it was quite easy for him to win a place in the Chittaranjan F.C. squad of 1926. He then joined Mohammedan S.C.’s B squad and later managed to join Sporting Union’s squad by impressing manager Pankaj Gupta with his exceptional skills.

Then, after spending 2 seasons with Aryans club and East Bengal F.C., he played for the senior Mohammedan F.C. squad from 1934-36. Salim was instrumental in winning 5 national titles in a row. He impressed the national selectors in 1936 and got a place in the national team against the Chinese Olympic side.

He was to play another match against them for the civil an military side but vanished just before the match. It was found out he had traveled with his relative Hasheem, who told him to try out his luck in European football. Hasheem used his sources and made him a part of the 1936 Celtic F.C squad in Scotland. Thus, he became the first Indian to play in a European club.

He soon made his debut against Hamilton Accies and scored with a beautiful penalty. Celtic won 5-1. In the next match, where they won against Galston 7-1, three of the seven goals came from his brilliant moves. The crowd was excited, so was the media. The Scottish Daily express stated in one of it’s articles:

Ten twinkling toes of Salim, Celtic FC’s player from India hypnotised the crowd at Parkhead last night in an Alliance game with Galston. He balances the ball on his big toe, lets it run down the scale to his little toe, twirls it, hops on one foot around the defender, then flicks the ball to the center who has only to send it into goal. Three of Celtic’s seven goals last night came from his moves. Was asked to take a penalty, he refused. Said he was shy. Salim does not speak English, his brother translates for him. Brother Hasheem thinks Salim is wonderful – so did the crowd last night.

They following are excerpts from the Glasgow Observer and Alan Breck’s Book of Scottish Football respectively:

Abdul Salim, Celtic’s Indian International trialist, tickled the crowd at Celtic Park on Friday with his magnificent ball manipulation. In his bare feet he was a conspicuous figure but this was further emphasised by his dark skin against the white and green of the Celtic strip. His play was top class. Every ball he touched went exactly to the place he wanted it to. Not one inch was it out. His crosses into goal were simply shrieking to be nodded into the net. I wouldn’t like to have calculated the score had McGrory been playing ….. [Danny] Dawson missed a penalty kick which Salim, despite the invitation of Alex Millar, refused to take.

Celtic introduced a novel touch when, in an Alliance game against Galston, they fielded Abdul Salim, an Indian. Salim played without boots, his feet being tightly bandaged, as the pictures show. Mohamed Hashean, to give him his right name, proved an expert in trapping and lobbing the ball towards goal. He fairly hypnotised the opposing defenders, and seven goals were actually the outcome of his moves. Foreign footballers are by no means rare. But all have played in the regulation boots. Salim preferred to stick to his native way, and, what is more, he “saw the boots off” the other fellows. His accuracy in shooting and ball control greatly tickled the crowd.

But soon he was effected by homesickness and became desperate to return to India. But Celtic, desperate enough keep in their squad offered to organise a charity match for him and decided to give him 5 % of the total entry fee collected,i.e, £1,800. Little did the illiterate Salim understood it’s value, he asked the Celtic authorities to give it to the local orphans.

When Salim fell very ill in 1976, his son Rashid wrote to the Celtic authorities stating that he was in desperate need of money. And in a few days the media approached, they got to know an astonishing fact from him. It was:

I had no intention of asking for money. It was just a ploy to find out if Mohammed Salim was still alive in their memory. To my amazement, I received a letter from the club. Inside was a bank draft for £100. I was delighted, not because I received the money but because my father still holds a pride of place in Celtic. I have not even cashed the draft and will preserve it till I die. I just want my father’s name to be put as the first Indian footballer to play abroad. That is the only thing that I want and nothing else.

The great man finally passed way in 1980. He would always be remembered for his achievements and success and would always be respected for making India proud.