Personal information | |||
---|---|---|---|
Date of birth | 26 January 1956 | ||
Place of birth | Hyderabad, India | ||
Playing position | Striker | ||
Senior career* | |||
Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
–1972 | Hyderabad Arsenal Club | ||
1972 | Tata Sports Club | ||
1972–1973 | East Bengal | ||
1973–1985 | Mohammedan | ||
National team | |||
1974–1984 | India | 110 | (35) |
Teams managed | |||
1985–1992 | Mohammedan | ||
1992–1993 | Rajasthan Club | ||
1993–1995 | Peerless | ||
1997–2000 | Salgaocar | ||
2000–2001 | Mahindra United | ||
2004 | Churchill Brothers | ||
2005 | Salgaocar | ||
2007–2010 | Mohammedan | ||
2011–present | Southern Samity | ||
* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. |
Shabbir Ali, (born 26 January 1956) is an Indian association football manager and former player.
He was awarded the Dhyan Chand Award, the highest award in Indian sports for lifetime achievement, given by Government of India in 2011.
As a footballer, Shabbir Ali was rated as the best player in India during the 1970s and 1980s. Arguably the finest striker of his time, Shabbir was a prolific goal scorer both at the national and international level. He rose to fame at a very early age when he captained India to win the Asian Youth championships in Bangkok jointly with Iran in 1974, a performance which even earned praise from the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.
After playing with Tata Sports Club in Bombay for a few years, Shabbir Ali was lured away by the top Calcutta club, East Bengal in the late seventies. Later he joined Mohammedan and took the club to a great height before retiring from the same club in the mid-1980s.
Shabbir Ali scored 35 goals in international matches and remains one of India's all-time top scorers, ahead of Chuni Goswami, PK Banerjee, Inder Singh and Baichung Bhutia among others. In the 1976 Merdeka international football tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Shabbir Ali scored a hat-trick against Indonesia in the first 35 minutes. Only five footballers in India have scored an international hat-trick; of those, Shabbir Ali's is the fastest.
For 13 years between 1972 and 1984, Shabbir Ali was an automatic choice with the Indian team, be it Asian Youth, Asian Games, pre-Olympics, Asia Cup, Merdeka tournament, Jawaharlal Nehru Gold Cup, King's Cup or any other goodwill tour. He also captained India in Asian Youth, pre-Olympics, Nehru Cup, Merdeka and King's Cup tournaments.
After retiring as a footballer in 1985, Shabbir Ali became a coach. He earned a first class diploma from the Sports Authority of India. He successfully passed the German football association B License coach and also their four-week coaching course, which is equivalent to A License.