‘Omar, Ghazanfar deserve call-up’ [The News]

KARACHI: Pakistan’s former assistant coach Nasir Ismail on Monday said that the country’s national football team coach Mohammed Shamlan should also call goalies Mohammad Omar and young Ghazanfar Yasin to the conditioning camp.

 “I am surprised why these two keepers are not being called for the conditioning camp,” Nasir told ‘The News’.

 Omar, who plays for National Bank, was part of the Pakistan team that played in the Olympic qualifiers against Malaysia in 2011 when Tariq Lutfi was the country’s coach.

 Before the qualifiers, he played against Palestine in the two-team home series.

 He was not in the good books of the then Pakistan’s Serbian coach Zavisa Milosavljevic despite showing great potential and character.

 Omar was also declared the best keeper of the 2013 National Football Challenge Cup which National Bank won after beating K-Electric in the final in Bahawalpur.

 Rookie Ghazanfar Yasin, who plays for Pakistan Air Force (PAF), is an emerging goalie and is considered a promising future prospect by the experts.

 He had not only shown great guts under the cage in the Premier League last season but had also been declared as the best gloveman of the National Challenge Cup that PAF won here last April after edging K-Electric in the final.

 “I don’t say that they should be included in the team but they should at least be invited to the camp,” said Nasir, who coaches NBP at the Premier League.

 Nasir said that Omar had played brilliantly for Pakistan in the past and has what it takes to impress coach Shamlan.

 “When he was part of the Pakistan team he was excellent. And I can still claim that if he is put in the camp he has the ability to beat the three goalkeepers which Shamlan has selected for the camp,” Nasir claimed.

 “If players like Ishfaq Uddin and Rashid Noor, who could not even make their seats in the Under-19 team, are invited then why have Omar and Ghazanfar been ignored,” Nasir pointed out.

 In order to prepare for the Asian Games, Pakistan team camp will start their conditioning camp in Lahore from June 1.

 “Omar plays aggressively and has a good personality and a superb playing style and I think he should be tested,” he said.

 “If you invite other best players of the domestic competitions then why haven’t the best keepers been invited?” Nasir questioned.