Lahore, 1 Oct : Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) has called Danish-based brothers – Yousuf Butt, Yaqoob Butt – in the build up for the National U23 team to appear in soccer event of XVI Asian Games to be held under Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) at Chinese city Guangzhou from 12-27 November 2010. The camp is in progress at Lahore’s Punjab Stadium and Model Town Football Academy Ground with players are being accommodated at FIFA Football House’s hostels.
Yousuf used to play as goalkeeper in Danish 1st Division for the Copenhagen’s Hellerup Idræts Klub (HIK). He was born on 18 October 1989. His elder brother, Yaqoob Butt is a Canadian-born Danish footballer who currently plays for the Jaegersborg BK club as defender.It is first-time calls-up for Shani Qayum (Sheffield Wednesday Youth) while Fraaz Ahmed (Nottingham) attended the two-day Rotherham tryouts for selecting budding football players of Pakistan origin which were held on 28 ,29 July 2007 at Herringthorpe Playing Fields, South Yorkshire, arranged by PFF Director Marketing Sardar Naveed Haider. He find spot in squad, alongwith other foreigners Zesh Rehman, Adnan Farooq Ahmed, Amjad Iqbal, Iltaf Ahmed, Adam Luke Karim, Fouzal Azeem Bashir, Assad Ahmad, Suffean Mahmood, announced for two-legged World Cup Qualifiers against Iraq but failed to enter turf of Punjab Stadium and
The four players, alongwith Atif Bashir (Barry Town), were in line-up of a Pakistan Selection which faced Woking FC in a pre-season fixture at Kingfield Stadium, Surrey on 1 August 2010. Of the five European-based soccerities, only Berlin-born Atif had represented Pakistan earlier in SAFF Championship 2008, 2009, 3rd AFC Challenge Cup Qualifiers 2009 and 11th SA Games 2010.
“While they are citizens of various European countries, the players are eligible to wear color of Pakistan because of their family heritage ” said Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)’s President Makhdoom Syed Faisal Saleh Hayat who had approved 48 probables in the provisional squad submitted for participation in the coming Asian Games 2010. Later on, the eight-day conditioning camp at Lahore’s Model Town Football Academy Ground during Ramzan Ul Mubarak saw the exit door for 13 players, and further eleven today to announce 24 players. The Camp will be comprised of three goal keepers, eight defenders eight midfielders and five strikers
“The availability of foreign players is broadening our base and opening doors to Pakistanis around the world who want to play football. We want to boost PPFL with foreign players and, above all, improve national squad. We are taking seriously the coming Asian Games where our U23 team will go all out. Several talented players of Pakistan origin are living abroad and we are well prepared to utilize their skill for our coming assignments in international soccer circuit. We will continue to dig out football players of Pakistani heritage for the betterment of Pakistani soccer,” assured Faisal who is also AFC Disciplinary Committee Chairman and FIFA Disciplinary Committee member.
The final 20-man squad is to be announced by coach Akhtar Mohiuddin oon the eve of four-week foreign Training Camp, expected to be installed at South Korea just before the Opening Ceremony of Games at Haixinsha Island in the Pearl River. Pakistani football team was deleted from the Asian Games on 28 June, but Faisal-led PFF pushed the POA to include it in the contingent by offering to bear the expenses of the team’s participation in the Asian Games and National U23 team made re-entry on 27 August. Since 2002 Busan Games, football at the Asian Games changed to age-limit and now it is a “U23 + 3 overage” tournament.
Following are 24 probables in Asian Games Camp
Goal Keepers (3): Amir Gul (NBP), Jaffar Khan (Army), Yousuf Butt (Hellerup IK, Denmark)
Defenders (8): Haider Ali (WAPDA), Umer Farooq (KESC), Samar Ishaq (KRL), Ahsan Ullah (PEL), Aurangzaib (HBL), Muhammad Ahmed (WAPDA), Atif Bashir (Barry Town), Yaqoob Butt ( Jægersborg BK, Denmark)
Midfielders (8): Mehmood Khan (KRL), Yasir Afridi (KRL), Muhammad Adil (KRL), Muhammad Tauseef (Islamabad), Abbas Ali (NBP), Faisal Iqbal (NBP), Muhammad Rashid (PEL), Zain Ullah (WAPDA)
Strikers (5): Kalim Ullah Khan (KRL), Rizwan Asif (KRL), Saddam Hussain (NBP), Shani Qayum ( Sheffield Wednesday Youth), Faraz Ahmed (Nottingham)
well done !! The bothers are great footballers !!!
thats the way !! now we just need adnan , amjad and kash !!!
very weak squad without zesh , adnan and amjad its looking depleted
That’s because you don’t know the domestic players and think that foreign players are everything. The team is not depleted. It has several very good players, some of whom are better than the low level foreign kids who are in the camp. The only problem is that the squad is a bit inexperienced, and the coach is not good. Therefore, I don’t expect any good results.
Abdul Sidd, I totally agree with your point. By just having players of foriegn league does not mean you always deliver. We gave good local talented players. The problem is coach who lacks ability to handle team. The coach is tried and tested. After firing Kottan, we should have immediately hired Salman Sharida. Now its late to change the coach. We can only pray that Pakistan gives similar performance as 2006 Asian Games or improved one. If we expect improvement in result then Pakistan should come up with a draw or win, it will take more than a miracle to achieve it. Still my prayers are Pakistan delivers.
Hi to all.. i dont have a deep observation on pakistani football but i think there should be maximum 2 NRP (non resident Pakistani) players in the squad. however to include them in PPFL and sending our young talent abroad (no matter if government has to bear the expenses) will really help out.
i think…naveed akram deserved more than anybody else… he was amazing in last asian games
Its been 4 years since the last Asian Games. Naveed Akram is no longer what he used to be. He was very poor in the previous SAFF Cup. Although if Sharida returns, then I expect Naveed to return to the team as well, since his golden days were under Sharida.
midfield looks pretty weak
Its actually quite strong. Mehmood Khan and Yasir Afridi are very good players, as is Abbas Ali. Abbas is also very experienced but recently was unfit. Hopefully he has gotten back in shape. The KRL midfielders have recently had experience of international football in the AFC President’s Cup, so its not a bad midfield, although Adnan Ahmed would have brought much stability to it.
The only person I would drop from this squad is Samar Ishaq. Absolutely useless.
Is this Mehmood Khan the one that Kottan said could play abroad, or is that the WAPDA Mehmood Khan?
This is the youngster of KRL who was previously at Afghan Club.
The WAPDA one is Mehmood Ali and he should be in the squad. Very promising player. I don’t understand why he wasn’t included. He should be one of the overage players instead of Samar Ishaq.
Oh so Mehmood Ali is the one Kottan liked?
# 7 in the Photos http://www.fifa.com/search/index.html?q=wapda He’s over 23? wow he looks like a kid.
I’m not sure how old he is, but he should be in the squad regardless. If he is above 23 then sacrifice Samar Ishaq for him.
This Team looks very promising and should do well with the foreign talent and young players in the squad.Lets atleast give them a chance before we pass any kind of judgement on them.
We believe in the boys, its just the coach that we have no faith in.
guyz can u tell me plz where iz adnan ahmed playing now???
in iran ir brazil??
what about iltaf ahmed has he been zapped into ablack whole brilliant goalkeeper
Amjad Iqbal is the best defender Pakistan have as backed up in the Asian games in Bangladesh when he won defender of the tournament. His broken leg had meant he has missed the entire season so far this year.
I played for this team , the point of having outside players was to strengthen the team and unfortunately the money was eaten by the people at the top and the useless home talent was used . Players from Pakistan have fitness and that’s it, limited technical ability and also , very poor vision, the way it works is if you play for Pakistan than you have a place in local department leagues otherwise you don’t get paid and its most players source of income. The lack of support for players outside of Pakistan is very weak