Footballer Hakim passes away

He was part of the 1960 Olympics team, coached India too

Olympic footballer and former National coach Syed Shahid Hakim passed away in Kalaburagi on Sunday morning. He was 82 and is survived by wife and two daughters.

“He suffered a cardiac arrest at 8 a.m. and passed away at 8.30 a.m. He has been getting treatment after he was admitted in the hospital two days ago following the first stroke,” Hakim’s wife Sadia Syeda told The Hindu.

Hakim, son of the legendary football coach S.A. Rahim, was part of the Indian squad for the 1960 Rome Olympics where it finished sixth.

The Hyderabadi, besides playing for nearly 25 years, was also a qualified FIFA referee, officiating in 33 international games including the 1988 AFC Asian Cup in Qatar.

Dhyan Chand award

Hakim became the second footballer, after Shabbir Ali, to win the Dhyan Chand Award for lifetime achievement in 2017 and also served as the chief project director at Sports Authority of India (SAI). Only last week, he was among the many former internationals who were felicitated in Hyderabad.

“I was not in the starting eleven. The team was packed with heavyweights; only in case of an injury to some of the big names, players like me had a chance in the Rome Olympics,” said Hakim in a recent interview to The Sportstar, while recapping his experiences, before the Tokyo Games.

Former India captains Victor Amalraj, Shabbir Ali, Telangana Football Association secretary G.P. Palguna were among those who expressed their condolences.

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