On the sad death of a great Goan footballer By A Veronica Fernandes
This is to express my deep sympathies to the family, and the soccer fraternity of Goa and India, over the sudden death of an ace Goan footballer, the late Antonio Joao Rebello. Rebello was considered an all-time great defender of Goa, the type of which Goa has never since produced. This, despite the fact that Goa has produced a galaxy of the finest defenders from 1950s when Goan soccer had in its possession stalwarts from Portugal. I have seen many of them while they played for the then top teams of Goa -- namely Bemfica from Mapusa, Goa Police from Panjim, Bicholim, Salgaocars from Vasco, St.Inez, Vasco Spots Club, Vasco and others. But among them never a single defender has created such a lasting effect on our minds. However, among the finishers and midfielders/distributors, we can get plenty, especially those originally from the Portuguese African Colonies such as Angola and Mocambique. One of Mapusa Bemfica's players was an African who was such a powerful shooter and header too, that at Mapusa Duler ground once he scored one such a magnificent goal from the center through a piercing powerful header. The second was Vasco's African Right Outer Arantel. After watching the best of Portuguese and Goan players from the 1950s, I can rightly equate Menino Figueredo of the Salgaocars to the late Antonio Rebello, though both were dependable defenders with accurate marking of their opponents both on the ground and in the air. However, the late Antonio Rebello stands slightly taller, especially in the aerial duels with his flexible body that he was taking to jump higher and higher like an Olympian high jumper to score goals from the corner kicks. His young and youthful daughter who was in Kuwait had the unique distinction of being a female Referee with an Official Referees Badge awarded to her by the relevant authorities. I started my own football career at the GFA (Goa Football Association) registration level when I was very young, a school-going boy from the Arpora school that was known then as the nursery of producing best footballers in Goa. Having noticed in me some of the best qualities, the top management personnel of Chowgules selected me for their team in the GFA second division League. During one encounter between Sesa and Chougules, at the Mapusa Duler, I played a very good game for Chowgules against Sesa for which the Sesa Goa's top management were present during that encounter and were impressed very much seeing me playing. When they noticed me playing well, they immediately recruited me for Sesa Goa in the late 1960s till early 1970s. Then, unfortunately, the gravity of the injury I got in Bombay while playing at the Cooperage for the All-India stature Rovers' Cup tournament forced me to opt out of playing at the professional level at an early age, while still a student at the St Xavier's College, Mapusa. When I was playing for Sesa Goa, Sesa hired one Bangalorean coach Raman. He was discussing with us the future of Indian soccer, when he said , "Indian soccer will never develop because other than Calcutta there is no respect for footballers in India. In Bengal, everybody not only respects the footballers but even adores them”. He then gave an example of his, saying that 12 years after he had retired from donning the colours of the noted Calcutta side Mohun Bagan, he returned to The City of Joy. The moment he stepped down on the railway platform, a chaiwalla or tea-vendor, noticing him. He screamed out: "Raman has come back." The footballer narrated that the man, jumping from his stall, kissed Rahman's feet and hugged him profusely, so the others too followed with the same. This gesture made Rahman extremely happy and he said to us that such a happiness no amount of money can buy. So, who's Rahman? Rahman was a magician-footballer of India's yesteryear's and perfect dribbler. His greatest tactic was in one leg to back heel the ball on the toe of his other foot and when the ball came in front of him through a rebound, hitting the opponent's toe, and thus fooling the opponent who would run behind the footballer who backheeled the ball thinking that ball is gone behind, but it created opposite action. Thus to score or get control of the ball. This was the best trick Rahman exhibited when he was playing for the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 in Australia. At that time our world-renown Goan footballer Neville D'Souza from Assagao, Bardez, Goa, also played for India and even scored a magnificent hat-trick against the mighty Australia -- thus engraving his name in the FIFA's history book. Such incidents should be kept alive through the songs by Goa's popular tiatrists. It is a pity though that the overwhelming majority of our tiatrists tend to be shy of reading. Now coming back to the late Antonio Joao Rebello.... during his few years of stay in Kuwait, spectators would anjoy seeing him play the very robust and hard tackling soccer as is played now in the South America. So much so, that when they came to know that he had come to Kuwait and was playing football at Sour Ground, which is the citadel of expatriates and Indians in particular, a few Kuwaitis including the national footballers of Kuwait came to see him since they had seen him playing for India and had taken back a very good impression of him. The English English Press was fabulous in giving him due coverage. Though he had migrated to Kuwait only after he passed his prime, yet spectators still enjoyed watching his game. I think this is the first time that such a vast press coverage was given to any sportsperson. In his death, Goan soccer will be poorer. This is the man who brought name, fame and honour to his village and to Goa by playing wonderful soccer. He helped to motivate more youngsters to follow his path, bringing more and more laurels to his village of Curtorim (Salcete) and Goa. All his co-villagers must join together and take an initiative to start an all-Goa knock-out soccer tournament in his name. Once again, may his soul rest in peace. ### Edited and circulated via Goanet-Reader. *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*- Join a discussion on Goa-related issues by posting your comments on this or other issues via email to goa...@goanet.org See archives at http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/ *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-