FOOTBALLER NEVILLE D'SOUZA
Assagao Bardez is one of the prominent villages of Goa known to produce some of the finest sons of Goa. Konkani pundit Mong. Dalgado whose works on Konkani created important impact on Konkani literature was from Assagao; Lucasinho Ribeiro who established the beautiful art of Tiatro was also from Assagao and Neville D'Souza the greatest foot-baller India has ever produced was from this village only. 16th March is the death anniversary of Neville D'Dousa. He blossomed into a perfect foot-baller in Bombay donning the colours of the then famed outfit Caltex and then went on creating record after record of scoring wonderful goals. At one particular time in Bombay he scored a beautiful hat-trick within 5 minutes only and all the goals in the dying minutes of the match at Cooperage. Those people who saw him then in top form were really lucky and some of them still talk very high of Neville's soccer skills. His unique record of scoring wonderful goals and excellent hat - trick was in Melbourne Olympics in 1956. India then had great players and for this reason India then qualified for that Olympics. Speaking of Neville Mr. Rahman also an Olympian and Neville's colleague during that year says, "I am yet to see such a finest dribbler and shooter like Neville D'Souza anywhere in Asia". Neville was a perfect foot-baller and it was a sad thing that he was born in India". Rahman was my coach for his short stint at Sesa Goa and he hailed from Bangalore. The hat-trick that Neville scored was against Australia in which India defeated the host by a margin of 4-2 and since then not a single Indian emulated this feat of our great Goan brother. However, the best goal of the tournament was scored by Neville only in the following match against mighty Yugoslavia though ultimately India lost this match only because of the weak defence. Just outside the opponents' area Neville got the ball, he controlled it with a magnetic touch and moved a bit, two defenders came rushing towards him, he swerved his body towards one side pretending to take the ball in that direction but moved the opposite side and the defender moved on the wrong side, then came the other defender and Neville again repeated the same type of action putting the second defender on the wrong side too and moved further to see the space empty infront of him and released such a powerful shot into the net that goalkepeer had no chance to halt. This Neville did because he was very good feinting tactician. Pele scored some of his finest goals only by using the trick of feinting. When Neville scored this goal the then Olympics President Avery Brundage was sitting in the stadium and when he noticed this goal he like a spring just jumped from his seat shouting at the top of his voice with full of exitement "see that Indian, what a wondeful goal he scored". Immediately, the then FIFA president Sir Stanely Rous in his writings described Neville as one of the wonderful players that he ever saw.
Besides soccer, Neville D'Souza was also a very good Hockey player and if it was not for his first love for soccer he would even represent India in Hockey. In fact he had great distinction of playing for Maharastra both in Soccer and Hockey. He not only played soccer but he devoted his total life for this game without expecting much of financial gains. Soon after his wedding instead of taking his wife for honey moon to Bangalore, he took her to Cooperage and made her seat in the stadium while he played crucial match for his team. He along with his younger brother Derrick played for Caltex and earned name and fame. Later on Derrick shifted to Mafatlal and in mid and late sixties Derrick was one of the best scorers of Mafatlal. That time Mafatlal had a wonderful team with 5 Gurkhas all fine ball players, one of them was captain Bupinder Rawat. I had a great opportunity to play against Mafatlal in 1968 when they came to play 3 exhibition games in Goa and face the onslaught of Derrick. That match was played at Panjim Police ground, Derrick was attacking forward and I was made to check his moves but he as a seasoned player and I as a youngster found really hard time to control his speed, hard takcling, dribbling and shooting. They came to Goa as Bombay League Champions and we played against them as Goa League Champions. My friend and colleague Albino Fernandes was also played for our team against the visitors.
The first time I saw Nevile playing on the field was in 1959 at Duler ground Mapusa against the then mighty Salgaocar having 5 Portuguese Pakle players and all of them were the finest ones. Neville was brought to Goa during summer holidays in April - May by Ancieto for his team Bombay Goans" to play some friendlies in Goa. Neville was not on his top form but still playing and during this match he took the position on the left flank. For Salgaocar under their bar it was mighty Pompeii and in the right defence was rocky Menino Figueredo, in the half line never surrendering Candu Abreu and in the forward line young Eustaquio. Within 3 minutes of starting this match, Neville got the ball, he controlled it with magnetic touch, repeated his Olympian action of body swerve in right direction and put the defender on the wrong side, then Candu came rushing to snatch the ball from Neville's feet but again Neville moved his body position towards right and took Candu in the wrong direction and from this folly of Salgaocar defenders Neville cleared his way and sprinted with Olympian speed and from outside the box relased a poweful shot that beat Pompeii in the zero angle. Pompeii came to know that it was goal only after seeing the ball in the goal and surprisinly exclaimed saying "A-R-E" in Konkani. Pompeii was surprised and everyone too was surprised, I as a small kid was next to the goal post stading there holding my fathers hand firmly and heard the word "A-R-E" which still rings my ears.
In1969 when I went to Bombay to play for Sesa Goa in the Roves Cup, Neville came to our dressing room and gave us some hints how to outplay our opponents. Many times he used to do the same for Goan teams out of his love for Goan soccer and he was taking lot of interest in Goan teams when they used to come to Bombay. Vasco was his favourite team and Andrew was his darling. During his visit to our dressing room, I wished him and reminded him of that magnificent goal that he scored in Goa against Salgaocar. He still remembered it and when he heard from my mouth he held my hand very tight and laughed and laughed.
It is almost a quarter of a century that Neville D'Souza died but up to now not a single major memorial tournament was organised anywhere in his memory. Some soccer organisers with the power of their money and influence sometimes organise memorial tournaments even after their kids - sons and daughters - whose contribution in the development and promotion of soccer is nil but when Neville has done so much for soccer nobody remembered him so far. I hope at least in Kuwait my friends will remember him and organise one major tournament at Sour Ground in memory of our great Goan foot-baller. The memory of this great genuis should not be allowed to fade away from our mind. His memory should be kept alive for the current and future generations because such players come amongst us only once in centuries and if we forget such greats we will never get another Neville again.
May the soul of Neville D'Souza Rest In Peace and may Goan community produce more of such Nevilles.
A. Veronica Fernandes, Kuwait.
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