India’s first captain who rejected offer from Arsenal FC to study MBBS: Meet forgotten football legend

This national hero led a bunch of talented players who had just recently become the citizens of a free nation, and made sure they stood shoulder-to-shoulder with players from rich European nations and their erstwhile colonial rulers. He was the captain of the legendary team behind the most famous story of Indian football. He reached great heights and left Europe footballing powerhouses in awe, with one of them, Premier League giant Arsenal FC even attempting to sign him. But the towering defender rejected it and chose to give up a promising career midway to fulfil his father’s last wish. The biopic deserving story belongs to a man who rarely comes up in conversations of even the most ardent Indian football fans: Talimeren Ao.

In the seven decades since he scripted the inspiring journey, he has been remembered and mentioned in archives with a variety of spellings: T Aao, Tay Ao and Dr Tay. According to his family, his full name is Subongwati Talimeren Ningdangri. His passport mentioned him as Talimeren Aao. He was the flag bearer of independent India’s first Olympic contingent at the 1948 Olympic Games in London. He played for and captained the Mohun Bagan FC team and the Indian team famous for playing without football boots. When asked about it by the media, T Ao gave the famous reply, “It is football, not boot ball.”

Talimeren began as a forward but converted into a midfielder and later defender aided by his strong physique and 5’ 10” height. He played for Mohun Bagan between 1943 and 1952. Besides the Olympics, he also led the Indian team to a tour of the Netherlands where they famously beat legendary club Ajax Amsterdam 5-2. As the Indian captain he once left an English manager red-faced, beating his team after he had said he would eat his hat if it happens. He refused to speak until the embarrassed manager “ate his hat”.

From starting out playing football with a ball made of waste cloth pieces and pomelo fruit, he earned an offer to settle in the UK and play for one of the biggest football clubs in the world. But legend has it that Talimeren rejected it without regret to complete his medical studies at the Carmichael Medical College, now known as RG Kar Medical College. Talimeren graduated as an MBBS degree in 1950 and left the guaranteed stardom football offered him and became a civil surgeon in Kohima in 1953. 

He was fulfilling the last wish of his father Reverend Subongwati Ningdari who wanted his son to serve his people as a doctor. He showed stunning loyalty to his medical oath by treating both sides during the Naga insurgency in the 1970s. He reportedly decided against joining the Indian Army medical corps as that would not guarantee that he would be stationed in Nagaland. Talimeren retired in 1978. He was Director of Health Services of Nagaland at the time. 

The legendary footballer lost somewhere in history married Deikim Doungel, a nurse who he met while working at the Kohima Civil Hospital. The couple had four children. Talimeren passed away in 1998 at the age of 80. Today, there are two stadiums in his name, one in Guwahati and another in Kaliabor. There are two football tournaments hosted in his memory. He was honoured with a commemorative postage stamp in 2018.