Biopic underway on legendary Mohammad Salim, the first Indian footballer to play in Europe

Dev Patel who was featured in the 2008 Best Academy-awarded movie Slumdog Millionaire will play the role of Mohammad Salim.

The legendary Mohammedan Sporting footballer Mohammed Salim who was the first Indian footballer to have played for the premier Scottish football team Celtic in 1936, is finally going to receive the deserving promotion, especially from the current generation of football fraternity across the country. 

Following the initiative from his son Mohammad Rashid, a biopic on Salim is coming up. Dev Patel who was featured in the 2008 Best Academy-awarded movie Slumdog Millionaire will play the role of Mohammad Salim. Rashid revealed, "The agreement was signed with the producer around six years ago. But due to the Covid-19 pandemic followed by the lockdown, the project was deferred. Only the shooting was to be started and I hope it will resume within a couple of weeks. I had gone to Celtic to collect all the documents and pictures the club has still preserved including the jersey my father used to wear while playing for Celtic." 

Salim was born in 1904 in Kolkata. He began a career as a pharmacist, but this was never his true calling, and he turned to his real love, football being inspired by Mohun Bagan's historic 1911 IFA Shield triumph. He joined Chittaranjan Football Club in 1926, at the age of 22, before passing through Mohammedan Sporting Club, Sporting Union, East Bengal Club, and Aryans Club. It was on his return to Mohammedan Sporting Club in 1934 that he enjoyed his greatest success, helping them win the first of five consecutive Calcutta Football Leagues. Mohammedan's title in 1934 was a hugely symbolic moment as the first time an all-Indian team had won it.

After winning his third title with Mohammedan in 1936, Salim was selected to represent an Indian team to play two exhibition games against the Chinese Olympic side ahead of that year’s Olympic Games in Berlin.

Salim’s Chinese opponents praised his performance in the first game, but before the second game, he mysteriously disappeared, causing the Indian Football Association to place newspaper advertisements asking for information about his whereabouts. Salim was actually on his way to Glasgow to try to arrange a trial with the Scottish giants and reigning champions Celtic.

Salim’s brother Hasheem, a shopkeeper in West of Glasgow, is believed to have been on holiday in Calcutta at the time, and after seeing his sibling’s performance against the Chinese, persuaded Salim to board a British steamship and return to Scotland with him. Hasheem spoke to the legendary Celtic manager Willie Maley and following Maley's initiative Salim could be able to appear for selection trials in bare feet. Salim having impressed the coach in trials was allowed to take part in his first match in bare feet against Galston on 28th August 1936 at Celtic Park in front of 7,000 fans. Despite being the only player on the pitch without boots, Salim enchanted the crowd with his skills and tricks on the right wing and contributed three assists in the comfortable 7-1 win to earn accolades from the football writers and specialists there. 

But after playing only two matches Salim returned to Kolkata. His son, who also played football for 13 years for different teams in Maidan including Mohammedan Sporting in 1969, added, "The present generation does not know anything about my father. I want only to bring his name to the forefront, especially to let the football fraternity know that he was the first Indian to have played in Europe. That is why I have taken the drive for this biopic."

He also lamented saying, "My father before his death in 1989 also did not get any visible recognition. Mohammedan Sporting organized a program by his name around two ago and following an initiative from late Surajit Sengupta, he was given a felicitation at Rabindra Sarobar Stadium in 1972 by the then Chief Minister late Siddhartha Shankar Roy."

 

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