indian football lost one of its leading lights with the passing of olympian syed shahid hakim on sunday the eldest son of legendary football coach syed abdul rahim died of cardiac arrest in a gulbarga hospitalthe 82yearold hakim who was part of indias 1960 football team at rome olympics is survived by his wife a son and two daughtershakim saab as he was fondly called had tested positive for covid19 last july but recovered after struggling to find a hospital bed at the peak of the second wave of the pandemic he was last seen in public at a felicitation function organised by the telangana football association tfa on independence daya central midfielder who played for city college old boys locally and indian air force hakims pet peeve was the lack of playing time at the rome olympics where the team which had seven players who plied their trade in hyderabad and the coach sa rahim who was also his father that was the last time an indian football team qualified for the olympicsfolklore has it that the coach was unmoved by chuni goswamis plea to consider playing his son hakim against peru as they had already lost to hungary and france in rome hakim had to contend with the likes of ram bahadur mariappa kempaiah and prashanta sinha for a place in the sidehakims association with the game continued well after his playing days he was an assistant coach to the late pk banerjee at the 1982 asian games in delhi guiding the erstwhile mahindra mahindra to the durand cup title in 1998 at the expense of a formidable east bengal team was a definite feather in his cap his coaching stints included those with salgaocar hindustan fc and bengal mumbai fc in 200405a former squadron leader of the indian air force hakim won santosh trophy for services in 1960 and continued to be a part of the squad till 1966 he was also a fifa international referee and officiated in 33 international games including the 1988 afc asian cup in qatar he was also a regional director of sports authority of india and his last assignment was as project director in charge of scouting before the 2017 u17 fifa world cup hakim was the second footballer to win the prestigious dhyan chand award in 2017tributes poured in former indian coach and dronacharya award winner shabbir ali was shocked i knew him since my playing days he was a good sports administrator and a referee too he said its shocking to know about the death of hakim saab rip hakim bhai said former indian captain and coach syed nayeemuddinformer india captain victor amalraj said i have a lot of memories with hakim bhai my sincere condolences to the bereaved family he said with agency inputs