Early career Indian nationalists were fighting for independence from British colonial rule during the 1920s and 1930s. Many Indians took to football to answer British jibes that Indians were incapable of
home rule. They played in bare feet and managed to defeat British teams wearing boots. At the time, this was instrumental for in demonstrating that Indians were, in no way, inferior to the Brits at Soccer. Salim did not find it difficult to join the Chittaranjan Club of
Bowbazar, Central Calcutta. Managed by a group of educated Bengali middle-class patrons, their aim was to play and win against contemporary European teams. Salim then had a short stint in the B team of Mohammedan Sporting Club.
Pankaj Gupta a Bengali sports administrator who was later the Head Coach of the first Indian National Football team, recruited Salim to play for his club Sporting Union. He went on to spend a season with
East Bengal Club before moving to the
Aryans Club under the auspices of Choney Majumdar, a leading sportsman of contemporary Bengal.
Mohammedan SC and Celtic FC Salim rejoined Mohammedan Sporting Club in 1934 and was finally part of their first team setup. Salim was instrumental in helping the Club to five league titles in a row: After the title win of 1936, Salim was invited to play in two exhibition matches against the Chinese Olympic side. The first would be an All India XI and the second would be a select civil and military side. These games were the first international matches played in India, organised by the provincial
IFA, but it was not until the following year that the India national team began in earnest with the founding of the
AIFF. The first match between the Indian and Chinese sides was a draw with Noor Mohammed scoring for the Indian team. After the first game, Salim was praised by the Chinese official Dr Chi Chao Yung: Before the second match took place, Salim had disappeared. The police were solicited to search for him and advertisements were inserted in newspapers requesting that he join the Civil and Military XI immediately. These efforts were in vain as Salim was en route to Britain via Cairo. A relative called Hasheem who lived in England was visiting
Calcutta and witnessed the first match. Having seen Salim's exceptional display, Hasheem had persuaded him to try his hand at European football. After a few days in London, Hasheem took him to
Celtic Park in Glasgow, Scotland. Salim was surprised to note that all the Celtic players were professionals but he was confident that he could compete with them. Hasheem spoke to
Willie Maley, the Celtic manager, "A great player from India has come by ship. Will you please take a trial of his? But there is a slight problem. Salim plays in bare feet." Salim made his debut in a 5–1 victory against
Hamilton Accies, where "he took a penalty and scored with a great shot." He thus became the first player from the Indian sub-continent to play for a European club. Celtic pleaded with him to remain in Scotland for a season, even offering to organise a charity match on his behalf and promising him five percent of the total gate proceeds. Salim refused and asked that the money (£1,800; a large amount of money at the time) be donated to local orphans who were also to be invited to the match. Salim was also offered a professional contract to play in Germany. In the end, he travelled back to India to rejoin Mohammedan Sporting Club in time for the beginning of the 1937 Calcutta Football League. ==Legacy==