A SHINING CHITRALI FOOTBALLER OF PAKISTAN--Who?

He played well, struggled hard and finally made it to the top.

Muhammad Rasul a young man of 22 from the rugged mountainous district of Chitral wrote his name in the golden book of history by becoming first Chitrali footballer ever selected in the national football team. Though I have paucity of words to appreciate the talent of this young footballer, but I have tried to share some useful information about him with the worthy readers of ' Chitraltimes.com'.

Muhammad Rasul s/o Muhammad Hashim, opened eyes on the 1st Jan 1985 in a small town of Chitral namely Charun located to the North of Chitral city at a distance of about sixty kilometers. He belongs to a well known family of Chitral --- 'Khushamatey' (a branch of the stately royal family of Chitral). His father has served in Chitral Scouts before getting retirement at the rank of Subedar.

After entering into childhood, he was sent to Peshawar for primary education, where he was admitted to the University Public School. This was the time when he passionately started taking interest in the game of football. He took part in inter-school tournaments and made a headway as a good player right from the beginning. His talent in this game shone to the extent that after passing the matriculation exam ,he was given admission in the most prestigious institution of Islamia College on the quota seat of football. His interest in the game did not suffer his academic career, he took both of them side by side quite comfortably. Soon he was made the captain of Islamia college Inter-football team. He took part in various Inter colleges tournaments as a captain and won medals and trophies for his college. He remained in the same college after getting promotion to the Degree level. He was retained the captain of the Degree level as well. Under his captaincy, the team participated in the All Pakistan University Tournaments held in Peshawar University which it won and he was declared man of the tournament. This was the turning point in his career, he became enthusiastic to prove his mettle.

During those days, a camp for selection on trial basis for Pakistan team was held in Islamabad by Pakistan Football Federation. It proved to be a bright chance for this young footballer to achieve the landmark. This boy was one of those fortunate ones ,who could be successful to satisfy the selectors to give the final nod in their favour. Finally he got selected.

Since his selection in the national side, he has represented Pakistan in various international tournaments. He played for Pakistan in SAF games held in Srilanka in 2006. Pakistan won a gold medal in that tournament after defeating India in the final match. In the same year, he also participated in the Asian Qualifier Round while representing Pakistan. In UAE ,he played excellently well by scoring a goal against Japan--one of the strongest teams of Asia.

His performance at International level ,raised his position in the eyes of domestic clubs who offered him to play for them. Finally, he accepted the offer made to him by Khan Research Laboratories and is currently playing for them.

In his routine life, Muhammad Rasul is a jovial person, and a wonderful human being as well. May this shining star of Chitral bring more and more laurels for Pakistan!

Khalid Pervez
Peshawar.
Email:[email protected]