‘My captain, our captain’

Zakaria Pintoo, who passed away in Dhaka yesterday at the age of 81, was not only the captain of Swadhin Bangla football team and the first captain of independent Bangladesh, but was also a reference point to many legends of Bangladesh football.

Pintoo's namaz-e-janaza will take place at 11 am today at the Bangladesh Football Federation premises, with Sports and Youth Adviser Asif Mahmud and BFF president Tabith Awal in attendance.

The larger-than-life character had earned many accolades and much admiration during his illustrious footballing career and later as a football administrator, but he will perhaps always be regarded as 'the captain' by everyone that played with him or against him.

Pratap Shankar Hazra, the famed footballer and hockey player, was one of the closest friends Pintoo had had, starting from the university days to the last day of his life.

Hazra, who served as deputy to Pintoo in the Swadhin Bangla football team and played under Pintoo's captaincy in Mohammedan for more than a decade, remembered the stopper-back with much fondness.

"He was my captain, our captain," Hazra told The Daily Star over phone yesterday after the national sports award winning footballer passed away in the morning from various complications.

"To me was the best defender of Bangladesh. No one could get the ball past him," Hazra reflected. "And as a captain, he was unparalleled. His decision-making, leadership and ability to help others out earned everyone's respect."

Playing as a centre-back in three-man defences, Pintoo was regarded as a wall in Bangladesh's football playing for famous clubs such as East End, Wanderers, and Mohammedan Sporting over a career that almost spanned two decades.

The stocky defender was one of the very few players that represented both Pakistan team as well as Bangladesh team. While Pinto captain Bangladesh in their first-ever international match in 1971, it was his captaincy for the Swadhin Bangla football team that set him apart from the others.

Kazi Salahuddin, arguably one of Bangladesh's all-time greatest footballers, believes Pintoo was the real hero for Bangladesh football.

"There are many heroes in Bangladesh football, but Pintoo bhai was the real hero because he was the captain of Swadhin Bangla football team. He was a great player and a great defender," Salahuddin, the recent-past president of Bangladesh Football Federation, told The Daily Star.

"I have played with him in Mohammedan and also against him in Abahani. Our relationship during the 90 minutes on the pitch was not smooth, but after the final whistle, it was very friendly," Salahuddin recalled.

It was not just the technical ability and leadership skill that endeared Pintoo to his peers and juniors, he was a friend off the pitch to many footballers.

He had that image of a captain and used to maintain it. Pintoo bhai was a captain to all of us.

"We all respected him as captain and maintained a bit of distance, maybe because he was a bit senior to most of us. There was that command in him. He had that image of a captain and used to maintain it too," Golam Sarwar Tipu, another great footballer of that era, explained.

"However, he was very jolly off the field. He was fun on dining table, where he would talk a lot about cinema and books, but not much about football," recalled Tipu, lamenting the fact that Pintoo had started to live a quiet life, away from public interaction, following the death of his wife five years ago.