Pakistan national under-23 football team

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Pakistan Under-23
Shirt badge/Association crest
Nickname(s)Green Shirts, Pak Shaheens
AssociationPakistan Football Federation
ConfederationAFC (Asia)
Sub-confederationSAFF (South Asia)
Head coachShahzad Anwar
CaptainAbdullah Shah
FIFA codePAK
First colours
Second colours
First international
Pakistan 0–1 Yemen 
(30 August 1991)
Biggest win
Pakistan 4–0 Bhutan 
(Colombo, Sri Lanka; 23 August 2006)
Biggest defeat
Pakistan 0–8 Bahrain 
(Isa Town, Bahrain; 28 February 2007)
Asian Cup
Appearancesnone
Asian Games
Appearances5 (first in 2002)
Best result17/25 (2018)
South Asian Games
Appearances3 (first in 2004)
Best resultChampion Gold Medal (2004, 2006)

The Pakistan U-23 national football team is a youth football team operated under the Pakistan Football Federation. The team represents Pakistan in international youth football competitions in the Summer Olympics, AFC U-22 Asian Cup, Asian Games and the South Asian Games winning the 2004 and 2006 editions, as well as any other under-23 and under-22 international football tournaments, such as the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.[1]

History

South Asian games

2004 South Asian Games

The under-23 side won the gold medal at the 2004 South Asian Games held across 3 venues in Pakistan from March 28 to April 6, 2004. The tournament was the first to introduce an under-23 tournament system for the football events.[2]

Muhammad Essa ended the tournament as top scorer and was player of the tournament, and helped Pakistan win the gold medal.[3] His goal in the semi final against Sri Lanka which ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw until the penalty shootout took Pakistan all the way to the final against India, where Abdul Aziz's goal gave Pakistan a 1–0 victory.[4]

2006 South Asian Games

In the 2006 South Asian Games held across in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 14 to 26 August 2006, Pakistan again won the gold medal.[5]

After advancing from the group stages, Essa's strike against Nepal led Pakistan to the final against Sri Lanka, which ended in a victory for the Green Shirts thanks to a goal by Adeel Ahmed in the half time.[5]

Summer Olympic Games

Pakistan first participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics qualifiers, finishing last placed with Yemen, Qatar, UAE, and Iran within the group.[6]

In 2007, Pakistan thrashed Singapore in both the home and away legs by 2-1 and 3-2,[7] consecutively under the newly appointed head coach Muhammad Rashid,[7] and won the preliminary round of 2008 Summer Olympics first time in the history of Olympics.

Asian Games

The under-23 side participated in their first ever tournament during the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. They were put into a group with Kuwait, North Korea and Hong Kong.[8]

The team subsequently felt short participating in the 2006, 2010, and 2014 editions.

FIFA restored membership of PFF on 13 March 2018.[9] With Asian Games approaching in August, the team had very little time to prepare. PFF announced the signing of new Brazilian coach José Antonio Nogueira and started camps in Lahore.[10] Then, the under 23 team along with 3 senior players flew to Indonesia in mid August to take part in Asian Games. On 14 August 2018, the team played its first group game against Vietnam, the then runner ups of 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, which resulted in a 3–0 loss. On 16 August 2018, the team faced a loss against Japan by a scoreline of 4–0. Pakistan defeated Nepal by 2–1 in their final group game which was the former's first win in Asian Games after 44 years.[11][12] Pakistan expected to qualify for knockouts being 3rd in the group. However, the team fell short in terms of Goal Difference.

Result and fixtures

For all previous match results of the national under-23 team, see the team's results page. The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Loss

2023

6 September 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup QF Pakistan  0–6  Japan Arad, Bahrain
21:30 Report
Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium, Arad
Attendance: 101
Referee: Yudi Nurcahya (Indonesia)
9 September 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup QF Pakistan  1–3  Bahrain Arad, Bahrain
18:30
Report
Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium, Arad
Attendance: 180
Referee: Zaid Thamer Mohammed (Syria)
12 September 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup QF Pakistan  1–2  Palestine Arad, Bahrain
21:30
Report
Stadium: Al Muharraq Stadium, Arad

Current staff

As of September 2023[13]
Position Name
Head coach Pakistan Shahzad Anwar
Assistant coach PakistanWalid Javaid
Goalkeeping coach PakistanChaudary Nouman Ibrahim
Media manager PakistanMuhammad Shoaib
Physiotherapist PakistanZubair Abdullah
Doctor PakistanMuhammad Azam
Masseur PakistanAbdul Qayyum
Team manager PakistanOsama Ahmad

Players

Current squad

No. Pos. Player Date of birth (age) Caps Goals Club
1 1GK Usman Ali (2004-06-10) 10 June 2004 (age 19) 1 0 Pakistan POPO FC
20 1GK Hassan Ali (2003-02-23) 23 February 2003 (age 21) 0 0 Pakistan Lyallpur
22 1GK Salman ul Haq (2001-06-10) 10 June 2001 (age 22) 2 0 Pakistan SA Gardens

2 2DF Mohib Ullah (2005-05-23) 23 May 2005 (age 18) 3 0 Pakistan Karachi United
3 2DF Haseeb Ahmed Khan (2000-04-04) 4 April 2000 (age 23) 3 0 Pakistan PAF
4 2DF Abdullah Iqbal (2002-07-27) 27 July 2002 (age 21) 1 0 Denmark B.93
5 2DF Mamoon Moosa Khan (2000-11-28) 28 November 2000 (age 23) 3 0 Pakistan PAF
12 2DF Muhammad Sohail (2001-09-04) 4 September 2001 (age 22) 1 0 Pakistan KRL
13 2DF Muhammad Sufyan (2001-09-21) 21 September 2001 (age 22) 2 0 Pakistan WAPDA
14 2DF Saeed Khan 1 0 Pakistan KPT F.C.
15 2DF Abdullah Shah (Captain) (2001-02-06) 6 February 2001 (age 23) 2 0 Afghanistan Abu Muslim

6 3MF Mohammad Taha (2005-05-01) 1 May 2005 (age 18) 0 0 Pakistan POPO FC
7 3MF Zaid Umar 2 0 Pakistan KRL
11 3MF Harun Hamid (2003-11-10) 10 November 2003 (age 20) 3 1 England St Albans City
19 3MF Nizam Uddin 0 0 Pakistan Pakistan Army
21 3MF Alamgir Ghazi (2001-05-09) 9 May 2001 (age 22) 3 1 Pakistan WAPDA
23 3MF Mohammad Hayan Khattak 1 0 Pakistan POPO FC

8 4FW Shayak Dost (2002-05-01) 1 May 2002 (age 21) 3 0 Afghanistan Abu Muslim
9 4FW Muhammad Waheed (2002-10-15) 15 October 2002 (age 21) 2 0 Pakistan KRL
10 4FW Waleed Khan (2004-12-08) 8 December 2004 (age 19) 2 0 Pakistan POPO FC
16 4FW Moin Ahmed (2003-11-28) 28 November 2003 (age 20) 3 0 Pakistan KRL
17 4FW Fareed Ullah (2001-01-01) 1 January 2001 (age 23) 3 0 Pakistan Muslim FC
18 4FW Hamza Ahmed 3 0 Pakistan Youngstar FC

Past squads

Asian Games

South Asian Games

Competitive record

AFC U-23 Championship

AFC U-23 Championship was initially set to be held as AFC U-22 Championships in 2013 and its qualification matches in 2012, but the finals tournament was postponed to be played in January 2014.[15][16]

Olympic record

Summer Olympic Games record
Year Result Position Pld W D L GF GA
Spain 1992 Did not qualify
United States 1996
Australia 2000 Did not enter
Greece 2004 Did not qualify
China 2008
United Kingdom 2012
Brazil 2016
Japan 2020 to be determined
France 2024
United States 2028
Total 0 / 7

Asian Games

Asian Games record
Year Result Position Pld W T L GF GA
Senior National Team
19511998 See Pakistan national football team
Under-23 National Team
South Korea 2002 Round 1 23 3 0 0 3 0 14
Qatar 2006 Round 1 21 3 0 0 3 2 6
China 2010 Group stage 22 3 0 1 2 0 8
South Korea 2014 Group stage 24 2 0 1 1 0 3
Indonesia 2018 Group stage 17 3 1 0 2 2 8
China 2022 Did not enter
Total 5/6 - 11 1 1 9 4 31

South Asian Games

South Asian Games record
Year Result Pld W D* L GF GA
Pakistan 2004 Champions 5 4 0 1 6 1
Sri Lanka 2006 Champions 5 4 0 1 9 4
Bangladesh 2010 Group stage 3 0 0 3 5 2
India 2016 Did not enter
Nepal 2019 Did not enter
Total 3/5 13 8 0 5 20 7

Honours

See also

References

  1. ^ "Pakistan U23". Soccerway. Retrieved 1 July 2014.
  2. ^ "9th South Asian Federation Games 2004 (Pakistan)". Rec.Sport.Soccer Statistics Foundation. Retrieved 30 November 2013.
  3. ^ "9th South Asian Federation Games 2004 (Pakistan)". RSSSF. Archived from the original on 6 December 2022. Retrieved 6 December 2022.
  4. ^ "Pakistan win SAF football - Rediff.com". m.rediff.com. 6 April 2004.
  5. ^ a b "Pakistan defeat Lanka for football gold in SAF". Hindustan Times. 28 August 2006. Retrieved 19 July 2023.
  6. ^ "Games of the XXV. Olympiad - Football Qualifying Tournament". www.rsssf.org. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  7. ^ a b Ahsan, Ali (2 February 2011). "A history of football in Pakistan — Final part". DAWN.COM. Retrieved 31 August 2023.
  8. ^ "Asian Games 2002". www.rsssf.org. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  9. ^ "FIFA lifts suspension of Pakistan Football Federation - FIFA.com". 15 March 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  10. ^ "FIFA lifts suspension of Pakistan Football Federation - FIFA.com". 15 March 2018. Archived from the original on 15 March 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  11. ^ "Asian Games football: Pakistan bag first victory after 44 years". The Express Tribune. 19 August 2018. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  12. ^ "Saddam laments lack of earnings for Pakistan footballers". www.thenews.com.pk. Retrieved 21 October 2023.
  13. ^ Editorial Staff (6 September 2023). "Pakistan face strong Japan in U23 Asian Cup qualifiers [The News]". FootballPakistan.com (FPDC). Retrieved 6 September 2023.
  14. ^ Editorial Staff (3 September 2023). "Pakistan squad announced for AFC U23 qualifiers". FootballPakistan.com (FPDC). Retrieved 3 September 2023.
  15. ^ "Call to improve AFC competitions". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 27 July 2011. Archived from the original on 18 September 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2019.
  16. ^ "Competitions Committee takes key decisions". The-AFC.com. Asian Football Confederation. 22 March 2012. Archived from the original on 2 August 2012. Retrieved 10 January 2019.

External links