With a heady cocktail of local and diaspora players, Pakistan football team hopes to become best in the region

Reaching just hours before the kickoff for a game against arch-rivals India, the Pakistan football team showed striking perseverance to take the pitch and give everything they had left in the tank in their SAFF Championship 2023 opener last week. The game ended 4-0 in the favour of India as Sunil Chhetri added three more goals to his unprecedented goal tally. “The biggest game for Pakistan in the last 10 years, and you got just three hours to prepare with no sleep and no food. But we don’t want to make any excuses. The best won on the day,” Pakistan winger Otis Khan had said after the India loss. Challenging as the situation may have been, it was nothing new for Pakistan football which has been mired in controversies and conflict. Twice banned by FIFA in the last six years, Pakistan played only eight matches from 2016 to 2022. Due to interference from third parties, the Pak Shaheens had zero international exposure in 2016, 2017, 2020 and 2021. Gladly, things are on the up in the country which is also reeling under political turmoil. By the end of this week, Pakistan would have seven matches under their belt in 2023 alone. Having lost a number of players over the years due to inaction on the international stage and shoddy domestic structure, Pakistan’s journey toward revival is being boosted by a heady cocktail of local and diaspora players. Unlike India, Pakistan allows dual citizenship. Diaspora’s dividend Nine out of 28 Pakistan players for the SAFF tournament were born in Europe and majority of them play their football in England and Denmark. Some of the diaspora players in the team include Easah Suliman (former Aston Villa academy player), Otis Khan (fourth-tier English side Grimsby Town) and veteran Hassan Bashir (fourth-tier Danish club Tarnby FF). For the players settled in Europe, Pakistan offer the opportunity to play international football. In return, the professionals from Europe provide invaluable knowledge and experience to the team. “Obviously, it’s a dream to play for your own country, so for me, it’s a dream come true playing for Pakistan. We have a lot of new faces from Europe and Pakistan,” Pakistan midfielder Harun Hamid, who plays for Queens Park Rangers U-21 in England, told Firstpost. “We bring football experience. I am not sure how the league works out in Pakistan but of course, we play week in, week out in Europe. With that comes experience. Week in, week out training, playing with professionals. I think we bring football experience.” [caption id=“attachment_12792112” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] QPR U-21 player Harun Hamid made his Pakistan debut earlier this month. Photo: Firstpost[/caption] Pakistan are not the first side in world football to take help from its diaspora to help bridge the gap left by the poor football structure in the country. At the 2022 World Cup, Morocco, who had 14 non-local players, became the first African team to reach the semi-finals of the FIFA event. The local Pakistani players hope they can also benefit in a similar way from their teammates who live in Europe. “Europe has the highest standard of football, so when we play with them, we learn a lot…It’s a great mixture of senior players and young talent, so they help us on the pitch and we help them too,” left-winger Muhammad Waleed Khan who is born and brought up in Pakistan told Firstpost. The results so far, however, have not been in Pakistan’s favour as the team lost the three games it played in Mauritius in a Four-Nation Tournament including the hosts, Kenya and Djibouti earlier this month and are also out of the SAFF Cup after defeats to India and Kuwait. “This (SAFF Cup) was really a big experience for us. We had been to Mauritius before India. We didn’t get the results there too but you know it’s a learning process. It’s a new team, boys are getting to gel together and inshallah everything is going to get better,” Waleed, who plays for SKA Brasil youth side, added. More games needed As is the case with almost everything, there’s no shortcut to success. Everything takes time. The same has worked for India who are enjoying seven wins in the last eight matches and eight straight clean sheets as a result of consistency and long camps. Devoid of exposure, more games together would help Pakistan make the progress they desire. “At the start, gelling could have gone a bit better but as we spend time together, we train together, we are starting to get to know each other personally and how we play on the pitch, so it’s going well,” midfielder Hamid explained. “It’s different to European football, you got to adapt a lot; a different style of play and you also have to adapt to players here as well.” [caption id=“attachment_12792122” align=“alignnone” width=“640”] Pakistan football team during a training session in Bengaluru. Photo: AIFF[/caption] Once they develop the synergy and symbiosis within the squad, the power of the diaspora players and the determination of the local footballers should help the Pak Shaheens move rapidly towards their goals, which is nothing short of being the best in their region. “We have to become the best South Asian team. India is really good, all the teams are really good. The match we played against India, we learned a lot. The match we played against Kuwait, we learned a lot. Inshallah, we are going to work very hard when we go back to our respective clubs. And we are going to come back much stronger,” Hamid said. Chhetri and India experience The experience of playing in India would go a long way in helping the 195th-ranked Pakistan find their feet in international football. At 101 in FIFA rankings, the Igor Stimac-led Blue Tigers are the best team in the South Asian region by miles. “Of course, it’s a big event whenever India play Pakistan. It is a crazy experience whenever there are thousands and thousands of people. It was a special moment for me to play in that game,” told Hamid. A trip to India also allowed some of the Pakistan players to meet their hero Chhetri, the third-highest goal-scorer among active players in international matches. “I have seen Sunil Chhetri since I was a child. I have got his shirt too. He is a legend of South Asia. I am a really big fan of his,” Hamid signed off. Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.