Abid Hussain Ghazi (Urdu: عابد حسین غازی; 1935 – 14 January 2016) was a Pakistani footballer who played as a midfielder. He is considered one of the greatest Pakistani footballers of the 1950s and 1960s, and also captained the Pakistan national football team.[1][2][3][4]
Club career
Ghazi started playing football with Karachi club Keamari Mohammedan alongside his brother Moosa Ghazi.[5]
He also featured for Dhaka Mohammedan club in East Pakistan.[8][9][10] In 1959, he was an integral part of the Mohammedan team that defeated Karachi Municipal Corporation to lift the Aga Khan Gold Cup.[11] Ghazi was club captain in 1963 and led the Black and Whites to their fourth Dhaka League title.[12]
Ghazi represented the East Pakistan football team at the ninth National Football Championship held in Multan.[13] The team captained by Nabi Chowdhury made a surprising exit from the tournament in the quarter-finals after losing 1–3 to Punjab Red.[14] Ghazi won the National Championship with Dacca in both 1961–62 and 1962. He was notably team captain in the 1961 edition.[15][16]
When the Burma national team visited Pakistan for a friendly series in 1961, Abid played alongside his brother Moosa Ghazi, where the latter also captained the national team in one of the matches. Ghazi also featured with Pakistan at the 1962 Merdeka Tournament, where Pakistan finished runner-ups after falling against Indonesia.[20][21][22]
Ghazi sitting second from right to left as captain Pakistan during their tour to China in 1964
In 1963, he featured in a four-match friendly series against China in their tour to Pakistan, and after a few months served as vice-captain behind Mohammad Amin at the 1964 Summer Olympics qualification.[23][24] In his last year with the national team, Abid Ghazi captained the national squad in an away friendly against China in 1964.[4]
"I am ashamed that Pakistan’s former national football captain Abid Ghazi’s son sold all [his] belongings for [his] father’s treatment. Ghazi sahib is on his death bed in the poorest condition. He was Pakistan football team’s captain. Is that how a nation should treat its heroes?"
On 6 May 2014, The News International reported that Ghazi was on death bed, and in dire need of financial help without anyone to support him.[31] In December 2015, Pakistani singer Fakhar-e-Alam tweeted on his Twitter handle that Ghazi's son sold all his belongings for his father's treatment, and that he was in his poorest condition.[30] He passed away soon after on 14 January 2016, at the age of 81.[29] His situation also matched with former Pakistan national team captains such as Muhammad Umer, Abdul Ghafoor, Qadir Bakhsh, and his brother Moosa, who passed away enduring similar hardship.[31][32]
^InpaperMagazine, From (13 January 2013). "In-depth: Pakistan football". DAWN.COM. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 11 August 2024.
^Dulal, Mahmud (2014). পাকিস্তান জাতীয় দল বাঙালি খেলোয়াড় (transl. Bengali players in the Pakistan national team) (in Bengali). Bishhoshahitto Bhobon. p. 14.
^Mahmud, Dulal (2020). খেলার মাঠে মুক্তিযুদ্ধ (transl. Liberation war in the playground) (in Bengali). Bishhoshahitto Bhobon. p. 482. ISBN978-984-8218-31-0.
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