The Living Legend : Olympian Squadron Leader Syed Shahid Hakeem

Olympian Squadron Leader Syed Shahid Hakeem

 

Olympian Squadron Leader Syed Shahid Hakeem

Prime Minister, expressed the need to take football to every village in India. He pegged his hope on FIFA Under-17 [under-17 Football World Cup to be hosted by India in 2017]—is an opportunity for India. While the prime minister is committed to making India a power-hub of sporting talent and sporting superpower, the situation on the ground remains grim.

In the morning I woke up early, although it's a Sunday morning. I had the lappy on my lap and as always I was going through the headlines, just then my eyes stuck to the header and I entered the past, reading, the name of the living legend, Syed Shahid Hakeem.

Hakeem Sahib as we all affectionately call him, has been nominated for The Dhyan Chand Award for the year 2017.

Olympian Squadron Leader Syed Shahid Hakeem was in the 1960 Rome Olympiad as a forward on the field.

Football is in his blood, being the son of The most successful head coach for India was Syed Abdul Rahim, who quoted to his students,

“Kal aplogon se mujhe ek tohfa chahiye…kal ap sona jitlo”

And he made India to win  gold in both, as the head coach in the 1951 and 1962 Asian Games.

And also achieving a fourth-place finish during the1956 Summer Olympics, where India beat the hosts Australia 4-1 in which  Naivelle D'Souva scored three goals on a trot, becoming the first Asian to score a hat trick.

It's been an honour to have been a colleague with Olympian Squadron Leader Syed Shahid Hakeem in Sports Authority of India, whom I would call as the greatest source of inspiration, leading as an example, all of us being his juniors learnt a lot from him and all the learning was very precious.

Conveyed him my wishes in the morning itself and the humble soul was very thankful to The Almighty for his blessings to make it possible for him to tread the platform.

Congratulations Hakeem Sahib,

Wishing you on behalf of the whole fraternity.