Mohammed Salim (footballer)

Indian footballer

Mohammed Salim (, ; 1904 – 5 November 1980), nicknamed "the Indian juggler", was an Indian footballer from Calcutta (now Kolkata, West Bengal), which at the time was part of the British Raj. He played predominantly as a defender. Salim was best known for his role in the fabled 1930s Mohammedan SC team which claimed five successive Calcutta Football League titles. He also became the first player from the Indian sub continent to play for a European club, Celtic FC.

Salim was a chemist and a pharmacist from Bengal, born in Metiaburuz, a lower middle class locality in Calcutta in 1904. Uninterested in formal academic training, he displayed great footballing skill from childhood. Mohun Bagan's IFA Shield triumph in 1911 also contributed to drawing the young Salim to football.

Indian nationalists were fighting for independence from British colonial rule during the 1920s and 1930s. Many Indians took to football to answer British jibes that Indians were incapable of home rule. They played in bare feet and managed to defeat British teams wearing boots which was seen as evidence that Indians were in no way inferior. Salim did not find it difficult to join the Chittaranjan Club of Bowbazar, Central Calcutta. Managed by a group of educated Bengali middle class patrons, they instilled in Salim the fervent desire to beat the European in his game. Salim then had a short stint in the B team of Mohammedan Sporting Club. Struck by Salim's exceptional talent, Pankaj Gupta, Bengal's legendary sports administrator, recruited Salim to play for his club Sporting Union. He went on to spend a season with East Bengal Club before moving to the Aryans Club under the auspices of Choney Majumdar, a leading sportsman of contemporary Bengal.