Further to the article in Herald dated 7th of this month on the foot-baller “Legendary Menino…”, I would like to comment as follows:
Goa is yet to produce another Menino Figueredo the main defender of the then mighty Salgaocars. He was like a Rock in their defence line excelling in almost every department of this game. He was good in both his mighty legs so also in aerial duels in which he used to outbeat any high jumper. Even at World level there are very few like him of course with the exception of Daniel Passarella the skipper of Argentina’s World Cup 1976 team.
It was a unique distinction for him to be the first Goan directly selected to represent India in 1966. However, much before him, the genius Goan Neville D’Souza from Assagao had the great distinction to represent India in the Melbourne Olympics in 1956 and scoring a hat-trick for India against Australia in the quarter-final. He was selected from Caltex-Bombay.
It is admiring that even at 80+ now, he is still showing keen interest in soccer. He was my admirer and we both played against each other when I just began my career for Sesa Goa, at that time he was at his descending end and I was ascending. I still remember when we defeated his team in the League encounter at Duler, Mapusa where our Visitacao Lobo scored a magnificent hat trick by making fun of Salgaocar’s custodian the great acrobatic Sinari under their bar. Menino came to me after the match and patted on my back saying “well played, you will become a highly successful defender”. At the later stage, he shifted his position to the Center Half where he was not as powerful as the defender.
His comments on the lethargic attitudes of our boys to foot-ball is absolutely correct. Our Goan boys are not getting attracted to this game anymore as we used to get during our time. If this situation remains like this then R.I.P. the greatness of Goan soccer.
