he is noted for captaining the dutch east indian national team at the 1938 fifa world cup, crashing out of the tournament in a 6–0 defeat to hungary. curiously, the other captain, györgy sárosi, had a doctorate degree, the same as nawir. nawir wore his studious glasses for the match. the dutch east indies automatically qualified for the tournament after their original opponents, japan, withdrew from the qualifying round. he is one of the few players to wear glasses in the world cup. nawir and most of his teammates only played in two international matches, one against hungary in the world cup and another against netherlands, losing 9–2 in a friendly game just after the world cup. it was the last international match for dutch east indies, who became an independent nation indonesia in 1945.