Pakistan Squad Named for FIFA U-15 World Cup in Azerbaijan

For Pakistan football, this is genuinely new ground. The FIFA U-15 World Cup and Festival in Azerbaijan will feature a Pakistani team at a FIFA World Cup event for the first time at any level, and on Friday the Pakistan Football Federation confirmed the 14 young players who will carry that distinction.

Head coach Ihsanullah Khan’s travelling squad leaves Islamabad for Baku on October 20. The PFF says the boys earned their places through the National U-17 Championship held earlier this month, where they stood out among the country’s leading young talents.

Picked on championship form

The squad is Shayan Abdul Jabbar Marwat, Mohammad Salman, Mohammad Alam, Maqbool Ahmed, Shahraz Khan, Rameez Riza, Ameer Hamza, Mohammad Mustafa, Ilhan Khan Ali, Bakshi Hamal Khan, Owais Faiz, Zain ul Abideen, Danish Masih and Kaleem Ullah. None of them has played football at this level before — that, in a sense, is the point of the trip.

What awaits in Baku

Pakistan’s qualification-stage matches run from October 24 to 26 against Gambia, South Sudan, Cyprus, Jordan and Nigeria. The festival is played eight-a-side with 20-minute halves, a format built to give young players as many touches and as much match experience as possible rather than to grind out results. Most games are at the Hovsan Competition Complex, with the finals scheduled for Baku Crystal Hall on October 30. Teams from 191 nations are taking part in this inaugural edition. Whatever the results, the federation hopes the exposure plants the seed of a future senior side.