Men of genius are admired, men of wealth are envied, men ofpower are feared but men of character like the late Thulukhanam Shanmugam willbe missed.
A man who embodied Indian football in an era where playingbarefoot, practicing with tennis balls and faring well at the Asian level was anorm, a man who got attracted to the game while watching the English play atthe police grounds passed away at his home this month. At 93, Shanmugam was oneof the oldest Indian footballer to be alive.
Shanmugam played at a time where major milestones of Indianfootball were laid. He was one of the foundational players who took the fieldat the 1952 Helsinki Olympics but above all, he was part of the Indian sidethat won gold at the 1951 Asian Games held in Delhi, and all this while playingbarefoot. Then together with ex-captain Mauricio Afonso they backed India intofacing colossal teams like Poland, Iraq, Russia and Hungary in the inauguraledition of the Nehru Cup at the Fatorda Stadium in 1989.
“I learnt a lot about basics in football from him,” saysMauricio Afonso with ardour and respect in his voice. “Shanmugam was a manknown for his discipline and my maturity as a sportsman came from him. The onlyreason we won the 2 Santosh Trophy titles was because of him. He was thearchitecture to our win!”
There was also a day and age where coaches would not join orleave football clubs at the drop of a hat or vice versa. Shanmugam was Salgaocar FC’s longest servingcoach having joined the club in the year 1979 to his parting in 1996. ShivanandSalgaocar is famously known to state that T.Shanmugam changed the style offootball being played in Goa and introduced the tiki-taka style of Spanishfootball which was associated with Salgaocar in the 70’s and 80’s but mainly,he always stood out for his coaching abilities and strict discipline on and offthe field which made winning for Salgaocar FC very smooth. Under hiscoachmanship, Salgaocar won 2 consecutive Federation Cups and Goa won back toback Santosh Trophy titles in 1983 and 1984.
Known to have the best football brains of his time,Shanmugam turned down offers from giant Kolkata clubs only because he felt hewas treated with great respect by Salgaocar and that couldn’t compare to makingpot loads of money in Kolkata.
