[8] Arguably the finest striker of his time, Shabbir was a prolific goal scorer both at the national and international level.

He rose to fame at a very early age when he captained India to win the Asian Youth championships in Bangkok jointly with Iran in 1974, a performance which even earned praise from the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi.

[10][11] Shabbir Ali scored 23 goals in international matches and remains one of India's all-time top scorers, ahead of Chuni Goswami, PK Banerjee, Inder Singh and Baichung Bhutia among others.

In the 1976 Merdeka international football tournament in Kuala Lumpur, Shabbir Ali scored a hat-trick against Indonesia in the first 35 minutes.

[2] He gained fame when Arun Ghosh managed India U-20 team under his captaincy, went on to share the 1974 AFC Youth Championship title with Iran-20, in which he scored five goals.

[13][14] One of his best moments came in the 1976 Merdeka international football tournament in Kuala Lumpur,[15] where he scored a hat-trick against Indonesia within the first 35 minutes.

Appointed the Technical Director of the India, Shabbir Ali steered the team to the gold medal in the 1995 South Asian Games in Chennai.

It was a superb achievement considering the fact that India failed to win in the three previous South Asian Games at Colombo, Islamabad and Dhaka.

[2] In the 1991–92 seasons, he made Mohammedan Sporting the Champion Club of India having won four tournaments and finished runners-up in two others.

[23][24] Barring a few like PK Banerjee and Syed Nayeemuddin, no other coach in India could win so many titles in such a short span as Shabbir Ali did.

[25] Next Salgaocar won the National League title,[26] the only time a Goan team could win it till date.