Camilo Gonsalves

Dempo were always blessed with some fine strikers since inception. Manohar Asnodkar, Manuel D’Costa, B B Thapa, Nanda Gaad, K Williams, Francis D’Souza and DionisioTrindade, to name a few, were all capable of turning a game on its head with a moment of magic in the sixties and seventies. But in Camilo Gonsalves they finally found a striker who had the work rate to match the talent. Gonsalves was a Salgaocar star during the three years he spent at the club but after he moved to Dempo in 1981, he became an instant legend by scoring several important goals. He ran riot in the Senior Division League but nowhere was his class more evident than in the prestigious Bandodkar Gold Trophy final where he amazingly scored in four finals in six years. Dempo won all of them. He first scored in 1981 against his former club, Salgaocar, then netted twice in 1983 against ITI and was among the goals again in 1984 against Salgaocar; he capped his golden run in the tournament with a hat-trick against Border Security Force in 1986. Gonsalves also notched a hat-trick in the inaugural Federation Cup against Delhi Heroes. His hat-trick against Mohammedan Sporting also propelled Dempo to the Stafford Challenge Cup final in 1986. With such a rich vein of form whenever he took the field, the national selectors found it hard to ignore him and Gonsalves was rewarded with a place in the national team, an honour that he continued to enjoy till late in his career. Gonsalves though will forever be remembered for his goal against Punjab in the final of the Santosh Trophy in 1984, applauded by Bollywood icon Dilip Kumar and diva Saira Banu, both of whom were seated in the VIP enclosure. It was the first time that Goa won the Santosh Trophy outright and in which the Agassaim bomber played a huge role, walking away with the best forward of the tournament award. This superlative show coincided with his being ignored for India duty – chiefly the pre-Olympic tournament – prompting India Today to remark that “Camilo is perhaps the only genuine striker that the country has at the moment.” Dempo benefited the most from Gonsalves’ exploits all through his 17-year career at the club, a record that stood for a long time until Samir Naik came along.