BY IRINEU GONSALVES

 PELE, MARADONA, Johan Cruyff, Ruud Gullit ……all extraordinary performers, whose feats will not be clouded by the passage of time.  They are players who turned the complexion of the game from defeats to victories.  Without them, victories for their team would have just seemed a mirage.

Indeed, in the cauldron of the biggest football show on earth, the great are separated from the good.  Let us look at some of the famous players who wore the No.10 Jersey and also reflect on Goa’s famous forwards who donned the No.10 jersey.

Talk about No.10 and the mind goes to Pele.  He was the greatest, wasn’t he?  He was a magician with the ball.  Pele’s skill was unbelievable, they say.  With his right foot he could make the ball do everything but talk and using the chest, thighs and head he was able to make the ball do exactly what he wanted.  He dribbled round two and three players and played one-twos and scored goals as naturally as a baby takes to the mother’s breast.

Never has there been another player that could pull a crowd like Pele.  Brazilian fans loved him, the rest of the world loved him.  And just like Pele another great player donning No 10 jersey came onto the scene, he will always be remembered as a player who won a World Cup almost all by himself.  One of the very best the world has ever produced, he was an enigma and a highly controversial figure – Diego Maradona.  Cesar Luis Menotti, the manager who steered Argentina to World Cup success in 1978 and who used Maradona in his attempts to retain the title in 1982 said, “If I had to compare him I would say he recalls a mixture of Pele and Puskas but he is not a second of either, he is Maradona the first, his own man and a direct heir to all the great Argentina players”.

Many hailed Johan Cruyff as a worthy successor to the Brazilian legend’s throne as the king of the game.  Pele at one time doubted Cruyff’s credentials to be called the greatest in the world because to him, the greatest must also take risks to go where he can get hurt to score goals.  The moment when Cruyff passed his ultimate test came when Pele was watching Holland play Argentina.  When Cruyff scored that marvelous goal, Pele jumped out of his chair and shouted to his friend “Professor, Professor did you see that?  It was impossible, Cruyff could not have scored if he had hit the ball one centimeter wrong to left or right”.

Goa’s famous No.10

1) Ainsao Coutinho  -  popularly known as Gobro was Salgaocar’s Sharp-Shooter in the years when most of the present footballers were not born.  He blasted holes in the country’s tightest defences.  Impressive displays in front of goal for both Salgaocar and the State.  The dashing forward served Salgaocar for nearly two decades and assisted Goa in the Nationals from 1964 to 1968.  He was the crowd’s favourite

2) Visitacao Lobo – Goa’s first international.  Though he enjoyed a brief stint with Salgaocar SC he served Sesa Goa for more than two decades.  Visitacao was the second recipient of Jivbadada Kerkar award – State’s highest sports award.  In his career, Lobo proved to be an innate goal scorer, possessing those typical Brazilian skills of improvisation and trickery

3) Dr. Wilson Mazarello – was the most talented striker to come out of the Academica.  An opportunistic scorer to the core, he had a powerful shot.  He also played for Salgaocars and represented Goa in the 1965 National at Guwahati.

4) Bernard Pereira – No Goan forward could match Bernard for sheer speed and horse-like stamina.  People still talk of his powerful shot from almost the center of the ground against Bengal in the 1972 Nationals held in Goa.  He is the first footballer to receive the Bakshi Jivdabai Kerkar award.

5) Dionisio Trindade – As a teenage star in the all conquering Panvel SC, he was one of Dempo’s best strikers.  He scored both the goals for Dempo against JCT in the 1979 Rovers Cup final.  He has been a National player since 1975 and donned Goa’s colours for several years.  Dionisio was an indefatigable front runner who always jockeyed for position and scored a number of hatricks including the one in the Sait Nagjee tournament against HAL, Bangalore.

6) Bento Andrew – Modern day coaches would have loved to have him in their side.  Bento’s skill was natural and possessed oodles of talent.  His tenure with Salgaocar SC was studded with stunning goals and astonishing performances.  Salgaocar made their first entry in the Rovers Cup final by virtue of his goal against Dempo.  Salgaocar also registered their first ever win over Mohun Bagan with a goal scored by him.  He represented India in the 1983 Nehru Gold Cup and played in the Nationals for several years.

7) Bruno Coutinho – The second Goan to get the prestigious Arjuna Award.  Salgaocar benefited immensely from Bruno’s lethal strikes.  Bruno is Goa’s most experienced international footballer along with  Brahmanand Shankwalkar.  He was quite possibly the finest No.10 Goan football has known.  The goal scoring feats of Bruno were legendary. Who can ever forget Bruno’s stunning performance in the finals of the 1997 Federation Cup against East Bengal when he scored two brilliant goals, which eventually enabled Salgaocar to become the champion club of the country.  And he did this on East Bengal’s home ground silencing the over one lakh partisan crowd.

8) Marcus Carvalho – Surely the most extraordinary, goal scoring opportunistic center – forward of his time Marcus was the highest goal sorer for three consecutive Goa Senior Division League.  Marcus scored a number of hat-tricks both for Churchill Brothers and Dempo SC.

9) Prakash Naik – made his debut in the National at Srinagar in 1978 when Goa reached the final for the first time.  He scored, Sesa Goa’s match-winner against Salgaocar in the replayed final of the 1979 Bandodkar Gold Trophy.  Dempo’s  match winner in the final of the 1982 Bordoloi Trophy was scored by him.

10) John Araujo – John represented India in the 1989 Nehru Gold Cup.  He made his first appearance for Goa in the 1986 National at Calcutta.  He also played in the 1988 and 1989 Nationals.

The best of the best forwards who wore No.10 Jersey and whose names deserve a special mention are Nanda Gaad (Dempo), Anand Verlekar (Vasco & Orkay), late Manuel D’Costa (Dempo), Paixao (MCC), Shamsher Khan (Sesa Goa), Romeo Remedios (Panvel), Francis Rodrigues (Sesa Goa), Adrian Dias (Vasco SC).  I’m not sure how many others have escaped my scrutiny, but No 10 is always a prized jersey.

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