Jarnail Singh contained future Ballon d'Or winner Florian Albert admirably in a group league match against Hungary, in the 1960 Rome Olympics.
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Qualification for the World Cup may be a distant dream for the Indian football team at this stage. However, they delivered a similar supremely impressive campaign in the 1960 Rome Olympics, having been placed in a group with strong sides from Hungary, France and Peru. Hungary who eventually went on to win the bronze. They thrashed Peru and France 6-2 and 7-0 respectively. However, they were pushed to the core in a 2-1 triumph against India. The French team was held to a 1-1 draw by India. The defence maintaining a resolute look till the very end.
One of the prime reasons behind this was the presence of Jarnail Singh. Jarnail was considered one of Asia’s most effective defenders, with his ferocious tackles and intimidating style leaving many forwards across the continent in a state of wonder. The same was visible in the group stage encounter against Hungary. The defender was handed the task of containing future Ballon d’Or winner Florian Albert. Albert was considered one of the most elegant players of his generation. He had the ability to deceive the opposition. However, Jarnail hated losing out on even an inch of space on the field. He also did not give two hoots about the reputation of an attacker or the past records. The same was evident from the manner in which the defender stopped Albert from touching the ball for long periods.
“Jarnail Singh is the best defender in India in the last 60- 70 years. He is a giant of Indian football and I have a lot of respect for him. I have seen him playing also, his skills, tackling, sliding tackle, the timing of it, volley clearance, it was unmatchable,” says former Indian footballer Subrata Bhattacharya as quoted by Scroll.
“He used to play as a central defender. In those times only two defenders used to be deployed. Later, three defenders were used. Those two defenders have to cover the area of 55 yards against five attackers. It was almost impossible to beat him in a one-on-one situation, not even Chunni da (Chuni Goswami) could do it,” he adds.
Football historian and veteran journalist Novy Kapadia termed Singh as the best defender that India has ever produced.
“Without doubt, he is the best defender that India has ever produced. There’s no comparison. Jarnail Singh was the most intimidating defender in Asia, forget about India. His tackling, interception and man-to-man marking were immaculate. He was somebody who intimidated opponents,” says Kapadia.
“He was absolutely outstanding for both India and Mohun Bagan. Played mostly in the three-man defence system and he was a very hard tackler, who had long accurate clearances and he could raise his feet till the chest of a man. In the beginning, he was not very good in the air, so when he use to go home in the off season, he used to tie a football to a branch of a tree and keep jumping and heading the ball till he improved on that aspect. Above all he was fearless. He never cared for the opponent,” adds the journalist.
While Singh certainly went on to carve a glorious reputation as a footballer, his resolute nature and fearlessness was developed on the back of immense struggle.
The legendary footballer was pushed into a cramped truck by his father at the age of 13, during the madness of partition from Lyallpur (now Faisalabad in Pakistan) in 1948. Singh could well have been killed along the journey to Amritsar. However, he managed to survive, which developed a sense of fearlessness.
The defender was further included in the Mohun Bagan setup by Arun Sinha, having operated as a centre half till then, against the wishes of the club officials. Sinha who respected Singh’s strength, witnessed his pupil getting jeered whenever he touched the ball. However, the defender refused to pay much heed to the same, firing in a key league encounter against East Bengal. Any other player may well have given up much earlier. However ‘Arjuna Award’ winner (1964) and the only Indian ever included in an Asian All-Star XI Jarnail Singh, was not one of them.
