DYK Adolf Hitler once offered Dhyan Chand a role in German Army? Here's what the Major did
Dhyan Chand had gone to Berlin as the captain of the Indian Hockey team to play in the Olympics games. Dhyan Chand finished the tournament with 11 goals.
- SportFit
- 2 min read
On this day in 1979, India's legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand succumbed to liver cancer at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi. He was 74 when he took his final breath. This year marks the 42nd death anniversary of the Indian superstar. Dhyan Chand is best known for assisting India in winning three Olympic gold medals, all when the country and its people were still under British colonial rule and were frequently made to feel inferior by the ruling English.
Born in 1905, Major Dhyan Chand's original name was Dhyan Singh and was also known as Dhyan Chand Bais. It is said that the hockey legend was called 'Chand' by his fellow people because he would often practice hockey at night under the moonlight after finishing his work. Dhyan Chand joined the British Indian Army at the age of 16 and played hockey for the organisation while simultaneously serving in the Punjab Regiment.
Major Dhyan Chand scored 570 goals in 185 games throughout his career, which spanned from 1926 to 1949. Despite reaching the age of 40, Dhyan Chand continued to play hockey until 1949. In his final days of playing at the highest level, Chand still managed to score 68 goals in 22 games. Dhyan Chand competed in the 1928 Amsterdam Olympics, the 1932 Los Angeles Olympics, and the 1936 Berlin Olympics for India.
What happened between Dhyan Chand and Adolf Hitler?
Dhyan Chand is said to have been offered German citizenship by none other than Adolf Hitler himself during the 1936 Berlin Olympics. Dhyan Chand's achievement in that year's Olympics Games is reported to have impressed the fascist dictator so much that he offered to grant the Indian major German citizenship and even a position in the country's Armed Forces. However, the Indian great had reportedly refused to accept the proposal.
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Dhyan Chand had gone to Berlin as the captain of the Indian Hockey team to play in the 1936 Olympics games. Dhyan Chand finished the coveted tournament with 11 goals in five matches. He wore rubber slippers in the 1936 Olympics final and scored three goals against Germany in the final to help India clinch another gold medal.