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Monday, March 3, 2025

'Sally' was as honest as they come

by

Kelvin "N"
1773 days ago
20200425
Michael "Sally" Saldenha

Michael "Sally" Saldenha

Michael "Sal­ly" Salden­ha was de­scribed by some of his clos­est friends, na­tion­al foot­ball con, Ever­ard "Gal­ly" Cum­mins, for­mer Na­tion­al Car­ni­val Com­mis­sion (NCC) chair­man Ke­ston Nan­coo and for­mer na­tion­al foot­ball man­ag­er Pe­ter Ram­per­sad as a "Man of Prin­ci­ples."

Salden­ha, who passed away on Thurs­day at his home, was con­sid­ered as a fam­i­ly man, a team play­er and a dis­ci­pli­nar­i­an, who loved life and saw the good in oth­ers.

Salden­ha, 75, came from hum­ble be­gin­nings but earned the re­spect of all and sundry on the foot­ball field and in the work place. The con­fi­dent in­di­vid­ual was part of the mem­o­rable Malvern teams which won the Port-of-Spain League most cov­et­ed ti­tles and na­tion­al­ly-con­test­ed FA Tro­phy and the BDV Tro­phy.

He al­so gave up a year of play­ing for Malvern Sports Club to play for the com­mu­ni­ty team called Glo­ry Guys Foot­ball Club, of which he was cap­tain. Glo­ry Guys won the right to move to the First Di­vi­sion of the Port-of-Spain League in 1975. That sac­ri­fice came to nought as the then T&T Foot­ball Fed­er­a­tion (TTFF), then re­fused to take Glo­ry Guys in the first Di­vi­sion but gave the po­si­tion to St James Unit­ed Club which be­came the first lo­cal pro­fes­sion­al team in T&T, Avi­a­tion Ser­vices Lim­it­ed (ASL).

Gal­ly said, "We had great times and he was a won­der­ful friend who would give you good ad­vice and stand with you. Michael Salden­ha I must say, was in­stru­men­tal in my life and where I am to­day. Sal­ly along with Nor­ris Bap­tiste and de­ceased Clyde Blondell shaped me as a young man grow­ing up. I would not have been who I am to­day with­out his guid­ance," said Cum­mins, who along with Ram­per­sad and Nan­coo were friends from an ear­ly age with Salden­ha.

"You know I trust on­ly a few peo­ple and I tell you Sal­ly was one of those per­sons. He was a gen­uine man and nev­er went back on his word. Yes, he would tell you what he thought and that was it. He held noth­ing against any­one. He was a true per­son.

"When I came back from Mex­i­co from my pro­fes­sion­al stint, Sal­ly gave me all the sup­port and as­sis­tance which I need­ed as coach to en­sure that Glo­ry Guys team won the league in 1975. He was the cap­tain of the team. His sup­port was im­mea­sur­able. That was the mea­sure of the man. His death came to me as a shock be­cause I spoke to him Wednes­day morn­ing and he told me ''Gal­ly, every­thing all right.' So, when I was in­formed of his death, I was sur­prised. Sal­ly and I went to Rich­mond Street Boys An­gli­can School, so we were friends from child­hood. We played to­geth­er on many oc­ca­sions. But there is one thing more that I wish to say, and it per­tains to our stint at Glo­ry Guys, Glo­ry Guys was a Foot­ball In­sti­tute of Learn­ing."

Ram­per­sad, who man­aged Malvern for many years be­fore mov­ing to the na­tion­al team said, 'When I met Sal­ly some 50 years ago, he has nev­er changed. He was al­ways in­ter­est­ed in foot­ball and was a stu­dent of the game. Sal­ly was a very trust­wor­thy friend and he would go be­yond, to en­sure suc­cess for his club and teams.

"I know Sal­ly since 1969, and one thing about him that stood out, was his forth­right­ness, he will tell you what was on his mind. You could dis­agree but he told you what he thought. Sal­ly loved his dis­ci­pline and every­one knows he was a dis­ci­pli­nar­i­an. Over the years, he has stuck to his dis­ci­pline with suc­cess. We have lost a great friend and com­rade but he will not be for­got­ten."

Nan­coo, who grew up at Dun­don­ald Street in Port-of-Spain the birth­place of Glo­ry Guys, was al­ways close to Sal­ly. Nan­coo, who be­came fa­mous, through his ex­ploits at St Mary's Col­lege in the 70s and Maple and Malvern there­after, learned a lot from the as­tute lead­er­ship of Sal­ly in his ear­ly years.

He said, "Sal­ly was a gen­uine man. He was one who was com­mit­ted to bet­ter­ing his com­mu­ni­ty. His work with the youths from Glo­ry Guys is some­thing no one will for­get. The dis­ci­pline which he de­mand­ed made our teams bet­ter. What is no­table is that we were suc­cess­ful. He was a true per­son and very down to earth at that. May his soul rest in peace. We have lost an­oth­er good man."


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