The Pakistan U15 football team recorded the country’s first win at a FIFA tournament on Wednesday, beating Tonga 6-1 at the FIFA U15 World Cup and Festival in Baku, Azerbaijan. Forward Kaleem Ullah scored four goals at the Hovsan Competition Complex as the young Shaheens ended a five-match winless run in style, a result the Pakistan Football Federation president described as the first victory by any Pakistani team on a FIFA World Cup stage.
Four Goals From Kaleem Ullah
The match began with a scare. Tonga, who had barely threatened, won a penalty in the sixth minute and took an early lead. The Pakistan U15 football team answered within a minute: Kaleem Ullah converted a penalty of their own in the seventh minute, then headed Pakistan in front in the 13th minute from a cross from the right. When Pakistan won a second penalty in first-half stoppage time, Kaleem Ullah scored again to complete his hat-trick before the break.
His fourth goal came in the second half, a header at the far post from a kick-in on the left. Maqbool then made it five with a powerful shot from distance, and Mustafa finished the scoring with a calm finish after a neat move down the left. Pakistan could have had more, and the 6-1 scoreline fairly reflected their dominance after the early setback.
PFF President Syed Mohsen Gilani, who watched the match in person after urging the players before kick-off to give their very best, praised the whole squad and thanked the coaches and team staff for preparing the players. The squad, coached by Ihsanullah Khan, was selected through the National U-17 Championship after a training camp in Lahore that began on 6 October. Read how the story began in our report on Pakistan’s historic FIFA World Cup debut in Baku.
A Campaign That Turned Around
The win completes a remarkable turnaround inside one week. Pakistan began the tournament on 24 October with a 4-2 defeat against Gambia, then lost 1-0 to South Sudan and 4-0 to Cyprus the following day. On Monday, the mood changed: Pakistan held Jordan to a 1-1 draw, Kaleem Ullah scoring in the 27th minute, and then drew 1-1 with Nigeria the same day, with Kaleem Ullah again on target in the 22nd minute. Those two points were the team’s first of the competition, and Wednesday’s victory turned a learning week into a historic one.
The tournament itself is a landmark: the first FIFA U15 World Cup and Festival, bringing together teams from 189 member associations in an eight-a-side format with two 20-minute halves, designed to give the youngest international players a taste of world football. No Pakistani team, at any age level, had ever appeared at a FIFA World Cup event before this squad travelled to Baku.
What the Win Means for the Pakistan U15 Football Team
For the Pakistan U15 football team, the value of this week is bigger than one result. These 14 teenagers have now played six matches against teams from Africa, Europe, Oceania and Asia, learned to recover from defeats, and finished with a win their country had never achieved at this level. Pakistan were due to face Nepal later on Wednesday in the tournament’s second phase, with the tier finals scheduled for 30 October.
The pathway matters as much as the result. The senior team’s own preparations are under way back home, where Pakistan have begun a SAFF Championship training camp in Islamabad under Nolberto Solano. A working junior pathway feeding that senior side has long been Pakistani football’s missing piece, and a first FIFA win, covered alongside the rest of the country’s sporting wins on our Pakistan sports good news page, is the kind of proof that the pathway can produce results.
Kaleem Ullah’s four goals took his personal tally for the tournament to six, after he scored in both of Monday’s draws, a return that marks him out as one of the finds of the festival. The 14-player squad that made the trip, Shayan Abdul Jabbar Marwat, Muhammad Salman, Muhammad Alam, Maqbool Ahmed, Shahraz Khan, Rameez Riza, Ameer Hamza, Muhammad Mustafa, Ilhan Khan Ali, Bakshi Hamal Khan, Owais Faiz, Zain ul Abideen, Danish Masih and Kaleem Ullah, was picked from performances at the National U-17 Championship, and every player in it has now appeared at a FIFA event before turning 16. Whatever happens in the remaining tier matches, they come home with a place in Pakistani football history secured.
Sources
- Geo Super: Pakistan hammer Tonga to register first win in FIFA U15 World Cup and Festival
- The Destination: Kaleemullah hits four as Pakistan beat Tonga 6-1 in Azerbaijan
- The News: PFF announces squad for FIFA U-15 World Cup
- Photo: Baku, Azerbaijan, host city of the FIFA U15 World Cup and Festival (Photo: Eminn via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0)
Umar is an engineer by profession and a passionate writer by passion. He has a deep interest in sharing good news related to Pakistan and has been working hard to promote the positive image of his homeland. Umar has written numerous articles on various topics related to Pakistan, such as technology, sports, culture, and economy.