KARACHI: Pakistan’s colts will fly out for Kathmandu from here on Friday (today) to feature in the inaugural SAFF Under-16 Football tournament to be held at Pokhara from August 1 to 10.
Six countries including Nepal, India, Pakistan, Maldives, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh are featuring in the event. Draws will be held on July31 (tomorrow).
Pakistan’s assistant coach Hasan Baloch said that the team is balanced.
“We have raised a good side with majority of the players are having international experience at the lower level and I hope that the results will be encouraging,” Hasan told ‘The News’ from Lahore on Thursday.
“The team played a few practice games against local teams and won all of them,
“We have already played with the participating teams at Under-14 level.”
Lyari born defender Muneer Aftab has been announced as captain of the team while Malik Dilshad from Sargodha will act as his deputy during the tour. Pakistan team will return on August 11.
Squad: Usman Khan, Syed Hassan Mujtaba, Muhammad Boota (all goalkeepers), Malik Dilshad Ahmed, Muneer Aftab, Shahbaz Masih, Rashid Noor, Babar Ali, Basit Amin (all defenders), Bilal Asghar, Muhammad Sohail, Sanaullah, Raza Ali, Haider Ali, Muhammad Zeeshan, Yawar (all midfielders), Sher Ali, Ashfaq Uddin, Muhammad Bilal, Zain-Ul-Aabdeen, Mansoor Khan Tanzeel (strikers), Sajjad Mahmood (coach), Muhammad Hassan Baloch (assistant coach), Dr Kamran Mehdi (physiotherapist), Fazal-ur-Rehman (media manager).