Pakistan Football Federation (PFF)'s President has approved Pakistan Army's goal keeper Jaffar Khan as captain of Pakistan U-23 football team which will appear in football event of XVI Asian Games to be held under Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) at Chinese city Guangzhou from 7-26 November 2010. Pakistan will open the onslaught on 7th November with clash against Thailand.
The match will be played 5 days prior to the opening ceremony at Haixinsha Island in the Pearl River. Other Pakistan's opponents in Group-F will be Maldives (9 November) and Oman (11 November). Stopper Samar Ishaq, a gold medallist for KRL in PPFL 2009, will act as his deputy.
It will be eighth trip to Asian Games for Pakistan who appeared in seven editions out of 15 so far in Manila 1954, Tokyo 1958, Tehran 1974, Seoul 1986, Beijing 1990, Busan 2002, Doha 2006. The previous seven captains in Asian games for Pakistan were M.D. Kutty 1954, Nabi Chaudhry 1958, Abdul Ghafoor 1974, Muhammad Naveed 1986, Matin Akhter 1990, Haroon Yousuf 2002 and Muhammad Essa 2006.
Jaffar has been playing for Pakistan Army since 1998, and has been the number one Pakistani keeper for many years since his first selection in 2001. Despite his lack of height needed for modern goalkeepers, he is able to make up for this by his some good shot-stopping skills He is also National record holder of goalkeeping, not conceding a single goal for consecutive 1262 minutes when Army clinched PPFL 2006. Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the PPFL 2004 and 2006, Jaffar got the honour of getting AFC Distinguished Services Awards from FIFA President Sepp Blatter on 7th May 2009 at Kuala Lumpur during AFC 23rd Congress.
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