Neville Stephen J D’Souza (1 January 1932 – 16 March 1980): The greatest Goan footballer of all times in the history Goan Football.

Who was the only Indian to score a hat-trick in the Olympic? In the year 2000, Calcutta resident Ramesh Dubey would have won rupees one crore if he could answer the question asked by the big B-Amitabh Bachchan on the Kaun Banega Crorepati show (KBC).He opted out and lost 50 lakhs because he did not know the answer. Prior to this, the majority of Indian did not know that it was none other than Neville Stephen J D’Souza, a Goan who died on the !6^th march, 1980  in Mumbai, Maharashtra, his adopted state.

Goa is known as the land of sun, sea, sand and football. In the game of football, Goa has won all that is up for grabs in Indian football, from schools championship to the senior national ie the Santosh Trophy. Besides this Goan Clubs, Dempo SC, Salgaocar FC, Churchill Bros have all won the I League, with Dempo being the pick of the lot with five titles. Therefore, Goa rightly had the tag of being ‘Numero Uno’ of Indian football.

Goa, being a Portuguese colony, naturally had the influenced of the Portuguese way of life. And needless to say, the Portuguese being very passionate about football, Goans took to football as fish takes to water. But contrary to assumption, it wasn’t the Portuguese who introduced football in Goa. In 1883, reverend Fr Willaim Roberts Lyons, an Irish priest, introduced football in the carriculam of Christian education at Siolim,Goa. From there, other schools picked up the game and thanks to the clergy, the game soon spread all over Goa

Goa was liberated in the year 1961 but Goa Football Association was founded in during the Portuguese regime in 1959, as Associação de Futebol de Goa, with Lt Jaoa Luis Aranha as the first president of the Association. Goa has seen the emergence of great players over the years with Menino Figuereido of Salgaocar Sports Club(1963)and  Andrew D’Souza of Vasco Sports Club( 1968) being the two Goan players who represented the Indian team against the Russian Teams in the sixties.. Therafter, several other footballers donned Indian colours with distinction with some of the prominent players being Brahmanand Shankwalker, Nicholas Pereira, Bernard Pereira, Camilo Gonsalves, Derrick Pereira, Mauricio Afonso,Bruno Coutinho, Climax Lawrence and Mahesh Gawli. From the above, only two Goan footballers, Brahmanand Shankwalker and Bruno Coutinho were honoured with the Arjuna Awards by the government of India.

Every footballer aspires to play for the country and playing the Olympic Games, the World Cup is the ultimate goal.  Taking this as the yardstick, the achievemenf of two other Goan footballers who  spent their entire careers in Bombay and represented the country at the Olympic Games, needs to be eulogised and should be a matter of great pride to all Goans.

 A Goan is a Goan, no matter where he resides. Neville D’souza and Fortunato Franco are the two Goans who may not had the fortune to play for Goa but their contribution to the Indian team at the international stage is beyond comparison.

Fortunato Franco hails from Colvale, a village in North Goa. He represented India from 1959 to 1966 and played the Rome Olympic games in 1960.He was also the proud member of the Indian team that won gold in the Asian games in 1962 at Jakarta.

Neville D”souza was born in Asagoa, a small village in North Goa from where his family migrated to Bombay.He represented India in the  Olympic Games in 1956 at Melbourne, Australia. He happens to be the first Asian footballer to have scored a hatrick in the Olympic Games. Thanks to his exploits on the football field, he won the golden boot and the Indian team went on to claim the forth place in Melbourne Olmpic Games,1956.

Surely a fourth place for India and the golden boot for Neville D”Souza in the Olympic Games is the greatest achievemnet in the annals of Goan and Indian football history. Therefore he can truly be called the greatest Goan Footballer of all times. The other olympian Fortunato Franco now resides in Colva,Goa and was honoured by the Govetment of Goa with the special award of Rs 5,00,000/- in 2010. The contribution of Neville D’Souza has completely been forgotten. GFA and the Government(GFDC) must recognize the services rendered by Neville D’Souza and honour him posthumously. It would be also in the fitness of things to have his statue installed at a very prominent place, in or outside, the very popular Nehru Stadium, Fatorda,Goa and the ‘Goa State Award for life time achievement’ for footballers should be named after ‘Neville D’Souza’ instead of ‘Jivadababa Kerkar Award’. Its better late than never.