A pall of sadness descended over Indian football on June 24 when Salgaocar FC, along with Sporting Clube de Goa, announced that they were pulling out of India’s primary football league, the I-League. In many ways, the decision was not entirely unexpected – the All Indian Football Federation had been at loggerheads with its legacy clubs since their proposal to make the glamorous Indian Super League the nation’s primary league went public.

Back in beautiful Goa, it signalled the end of an era. Salgaocar FC, along with Dempo FC and Sporting Clube de Goa, were the region’s pride. In a coffee table book titled Footprints in the Sand, eminent football journalist Marcus Mergulhao provided a fascinating glimpse into the club’s journey. Select pictures from that book are reproduced in this piece with permission from the club.

Humble beginnings

It all began in 1956 when the club was founded by the late Vasudev Salgaocar. They were immediately off the blocks, remaining unbeaten in the second division and qualifying for the premier division in their debut season. They would also go on to win the Taca D’Or in 1960.

The year 1961 was significant in more ways than one for Goa: India liberated the region from the Portuguese and Salgaocar became the first football club from Goa to be extended an invitation to play in the prestigious Durand Cup in New Delhi. Interestingly, the then Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru met with the team at a reception.

Nehru’s meeting with the Salgaocar team had political significance as well – the British academics Paul Dimeo and James Mill opined in their book Soccer in South Asia: Empire, Nation, Diaspora – “At a time when the Indian Union still had occupying troops in Goa and Goans were appealing to the United Nations for independence, this was an important image of incorporation and reconciliation designed for the newspapers”.

The next two decades saw a complete transformation in the way Salgaocar played their football, under the aegis of their legendary coach Thulukhanamm Shanmugam. But the hard work ultimately reaped plenty of fruit – Salgaocar became the champions of India when they won the Federation Cup in 1988.

But it would be just the start. The next year, they repeated the feat again, as if to further embolden their credentials. And they made strides internationally as well, participating in the Asian Club Cup in 1990.

Their greatest triumph

After almost a decade arrived possibly the best moment in the clubs’ football history. With a talented side comprising of players such as Bruno Coutinho, Juje Siddi, Franky Barreto and Robert Fernandes, they became the first Goan team to win the National Football League in 1999. This was a period of sustained success for the club: they won the Federation Cup in 1997, two Super Cups in 1997 and 1999 and the Durand Cup as well in 1999. That was truly the dream team of the men in green from Goa.

Rising like a phoenix

As has become a customary tale now, the next few years were low points in their chequered history. Despite winning the NFL title in 1999, they struggled for several years afterwards, even getting relegated to the second division in 2006. The name of the NFL was changed to the I-League in 2007, but Salgaocar’s struggles continued. A year after gaining promotion in 2007, they yet again slipped back into the second division in 2008.

But under Karim Bencherifa, Salgaocar rose like a phoenix again. They shot back in 2011, winning the I-League title for the first time, coming back from 0-2 down to snatch the title from under East Bengal’s noses in their penultimate match. They went and completed a historic double as well that year – defeating the same opponents in the Federation Cup final for the first time in their history.

Now, in 2016, after half a century of triumphs and tears in the same order, the future is uncertain. Salgaocar will keep the flag riding high in Goa, but for the time-being, the national stage will miss them. But as history shows, they have this penchant to rise from the ashes, when everyone has written them off. For the sake of football fans in the country, may it happen again.