Nanda Gaad

They called him a bull, but Nanda Gaad was not quite the raging bull in a china shop! He may not have had the finesse of some of the other prolific forwards who graced the club colours over the decades, but his influence was nonetheless enduring and his efforts were unmatched. Nobody was as eager and as determined to score as much as Gaad, and once inside the box, there was no stopping him. Coming in from Mapusa Youth, Gaad played a prominent part in Dempo’s transition to a successful club at the national level by scoring regularly on the big stage. This included a hattrick against Army Service Corps, Bangalore, in the first-leg semi-final of the Nizam Gold Cup in 1972 (he also was among the goals in the second leg).