Mohammad Rahmatullah (

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

: মোহাম্মদ রহমতুল্লাহ) was an Indian

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a forward for the India national team and spent most of his career with

Calcutta Football League The Calcutta Football League (CFL) is a ladder-based football competition in the Indian state of West Bengal, organised by Indian Football Association (WB), under state football leagues in India. Due to sponsorship reasons, the league is off ...

giant Mohammedan Sporting. Rahmatullah later appeared with Bangladeshi outfit

Dhaka Mohammedan Mohammedan Sporting Club Limited Dhaka, founded in 1936 at Dhaka, is one of the oldest and one of the most popular football clubs in Bangladesh, with a support base in all parts of the country. The club currently plays in the Bangladesh Premie ...

and became one of the earliest Indians in post-independence period to take the international transfer, while other being legendary Mohammed Salim, who played for

Celtic Celtic, Celtics or Keltic may refer to: Language and ethnicity *pertaining to Celts, a collection of Indo-European peoples in Europe and Anatolia **Celts (modern) *Celtic languages **Proto-Celtic language * Celtic music *Celtic nations Sports Fo ...

. After 1962, he also represented

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 24 ...

in international football.

Club career

Kolkata Mohammedan

Rahmatullah moved to

giant Mohammedan Sporting during the first half of the 1950s and won the league in 1957. With Mohammedan, he won the

IFA Shield The IFA Shield is an annual football competition organized by the Indian Football Association. The IFA is the governing body of football in the state of West Bengal, came into existence in 1893. Named after the association, the IFA Shield tourn ...

in that year, and won

Rovers Cup The Rovers Cup was an annual football tournament held in India, organized by the Western India Football Association. It was the second oldest tournament in India after Durand Cup. History Rovers Cup was incorporated by some British football e ...

thrice in 1955, 1957 and 1958. Rahmatullah was instrumental in winning the

Aga Khan Gold Cup The Aga Khan Gold Cup was a tournament played in Dhaka, Bangladesh which invited the top club sides from leading football playing nations of Asia to compete. Many renowned football pundits regard this competition as a predecessor of AFC Champio ...

in Bangladesh, in 1960, the first ever tournament win by an Indian club in foreign soil. They defeated Indonesia's Persatuan Sepakbola Makassar 4–1 in the final, in which he scored a goal.

Dhaka Mohammedan

In 1962, he moved to

and became the second Indian to play for an overseas club. He appeared in

Dhaka League Dhaka Senior Division Football League, also referred as First Division Football League, is the third tier of football league in Bangladesh. Until 2006, it was the top-tier league of the country. It was established in 1948 as Dhaka League, while ...

during his days in Bangladesh.

Bengal

Rahmatullah also represented

Balaidas Chatterjee Balaidas Chatterjee (10 March 1900 – 1974) was a former Indian football player and was the first head coach the India national football team during the 1948 Summer Olympics. During his playing days, Chatterjee played for Mohun Bagan in various ...

managed

Bengal football team The West Bengal football team (Bengali: পশ্চিমবঙ্গ ফুটবল দল) is an Indian football team representing West Bengal in Indian state football competitions including the Santosh Trophy. They became the second Indi ...

at the

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state-level football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under ...

and won the tournament thrice in 1953–54, 1955–56, and 1958–59 seasons.

International career

Rahmatullah made his senior international debut for India against

Burma Myanmar, ; UK pronunciations: US pronunciations incl. . Note: Wikipedia's IPA conventions require indicating /r/ even in British English although only some British English speakers pronounce r at the end of syllables. As John Wells explai ...

on 26 May 1958 in the

1958 Asian Games The 1958 Asian Games, officially the Third Asian Games ( ja, 第3回アジア競技大会) and commonly known as Tokyo 1958, was a multi-sport event held in Tokyo, Japan, from 24 May to 1 June 1958. It was governed by the Asian Games Federation. A ...

, that ended up a 3–2 win in favour of them. He scored his first international goal against

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

on 28 May in the same tournament. In the quarterfinal, India defeated

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

5–2, with two goals by Rahmatullah, and one each by the trio of

Chuni Goswami Subimal "Chuni" Goswami (15 January 1938 – 30 April 2020) was an Indian professional footballer and first-class cricketer. As footballer, he played as a striker or winger, captained both the Mohun Bagan club and the Indian national te ...

Tulsidas Balaram Tulsidas Balaram (born 30 November 1936), also known as Tulsidas Balaraman, is a retired association football, footballer from India who had represented the country in international competitions including the Olympic Games. He is widely regarded ...

and D. Damodaran. They finished on fourth position as they lost 1–4 to

in the bronze media match at

Japan National Stadium The Japan National Stadium, officially named and formerly known as or , is a multi-purpose stadium used mostly for association football in Kasumigaoka, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan. The facility served as the main stadium for the opening and c ...

. The next year he traveled to

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

where India took part in the

Merdeka Cup Merdeka Tournament or Pestabola Merdeka is a friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. The competition bears the Malay word for independence. As of 2022, it has been held 40 times, and decreasingly in r ...

and finished as runners-up. He was in the squad, as India began the 1960s with the 1960 AFC Asian Cup qualifiers. Despite the qualifiers for the West Zone being held in

Kochi Kochi (), also known as Cochin ( ) ( the official name until 1996) is a major port city on the Malabar Coast of India bordering the Laccadive Sea, which is a part of the Arabian Sea. It is part of the district of Ernakulam in the state of K ...

, India finished last in their qualification group and thus missed out the tournament. In national team, Rahmatullah's teammates under coach

Syed Abdul Rahim Syed Abdul Rahim (17 August 1909 – 11 June 1963), popularly known as Rahim Saab, was an Indian football coach and manager of the Indian national team from 1950 until his death in 1963, and a former player. He is regarded as the architect of ...

, were like:

Ahmed Hussain Ahmad ( ar, أحمد, ʾAḥmad) is an Arabic male given name common in most parts of the Muslim world. Other spellings of the name include Ahmed and Ahmet. Etymology The word derives from the root (ḥ-m-d), from the Arabic (), from the ve ...

Peter Thangaraj Havildar Peter Thangaraj (24 December 1935 – 24 November 2008) was an Indian football player and a non-commissioned officer in the Indian Army. Thangaraj played for the Indian national side at the 1956 Melbourne and 1960 Rome Olympics. ...

, Nikhil Nandy,

Samar Banerjee Samar "Badru" Banerjee ( bn, সমর "বদ্রু" ব্যানার্জী; 30 January 1930 – 20 August 2022) was an Indian association football, footballer who played primarily as a striker for the India national football team. ...

P. K. Banerjee Pradip Kumar Banerjee (23 June 1936 – 20 March 2020) was an Indian professional footballer who played as a striker for the India national football team. He also captained the national team and later on became the coach of the national ...

, Kesto Pal, Neville Stephen D'Souza,

Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din Sayed Khwaja Aziz-ud-Din (12 July 1930 – June 1998) was an Indian footballer. He competed at the 1952 Summer Olympics and the 1956 Summer Olympics. He also captained the national team. Life Born on 12 July 1930 in Gocha Mahal, during the ...

, Abdul Latif, Mariappa Kempiah,

, Kannan. Between 1958 and 1961, he appeared in twenty two international matches for India, scoring eight goals.

Personal life

On 12 March 2014, Rahmatullah was admitted to a hospital in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

for an open heart surgery.

Honours

Mohammedan Sporting (Kolkata) *

: 1957 *

: 1960 *

: 1955, 1957, 1958 * Coochbehar Cup: 1952 *

Durand Cup The Durand Football Tournament, commonly known as Durand Cup, is an annual domestic football competition in India which was first held in 1888 in Shimla. Hosted by the Durand Football Tournament Society (DFTS) and All India Football Federation ...

: runner-up 1959 Bengal *

: 1953–54, 1955–56, 1958–59 India *

Merdeka Tournament Merdeka Tournament or Pestabola Merdeka is a friendly football tournament held in Malaysia to commemorate the Independence Day. The competition bears the Malay word for independence. As of 2022, it has been held 40 times, and decreasingly in r ...

runner-up:

1959 Events January * January 1 - Cuba: Fulgencio Batista flees Havana when the forces of Fidel Castro advance. * January 2 - Lunar probe Luna 1 was the first man-made object to attain escape velocity from Earth. It reached the vicinity of E ...

References

Bibliography

* * * * * * *

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Rahmatullah, Mohammed 1933 births Living people Indian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Footballers at the 1958 Asian Games Asian Games competitors for India Footballers from Kolkata Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players Mohammedan SC (Dhaka) players India men's international footballers Pakistani men's footballers Pakistan men's international footballers Indian expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Bangladesh Indian expatriate sportspeople in Bangladesh Calcutta Football League players Dual men's international footballers