Pakistan national under-23 football team

Pakistan Under-23

Nickname(s)	Green Shirts, Pak Shaheens
Association	Pakistan Football Federation
Confederation	AFC (Asia)
Sub-confederation	SAFF (South Asia)
Head coach	Shahzad Anwar
Captain	Abdullah Shah
FIFA code	PAK
First colours Second colours
First international
Pakistan 0–1 Yemen (30 August 1991)
Biggest win
Pakistan 4–0 Bhutan (Colombo, Sri Lanka; 23 August 2006)
Biggest defeat
Pakistan 0–8 Bahrain (Isa Town, Bahrain; 28 February 2007)
Asian Cup
Appearances	none
Asian Games
Appearances	5 (first in 2002)
Best result	17/25 (2018)
South Asian Games
Appearances	3 (first in 2004)
Best result	Gold Medal (2004, 2006)
Medal record Men's football South Asian Games 2004 Islamabad Team 2006 Colombo Team

The Pakistan U-23 national football team is a youth football team operated under the Pakistan Football Federation. The team represents Pakistan in international youth football competitions in the Summer Olympics, AFC U-22 Asian Cup, Asian Games and the South Asian Games winning the 2004 and 2006 editions, as well as any other under-23 and under-22 international football tournaments, such as the AFC U-23 Asian Cup.

History

South Asian games

2004 South Asian Games

The under-23 side won the gold medal at the 2004 South Asian Games held across 3 venues in Pakistan from March 28 to April 6, 2004. The tournament was the first to introduce an under-23 tournament system for the football events.

Muhammad Essa ended the tournament as top scorer and was player of the tournament, and helped Pakistan win the gold medal. His goal in the semi final against Sri Lanka which ultimately ended in a 1-1 draw until the penalty shootout took Pakistan all the way to the final against India, where Abdul Aziz's goal gave Pakistan a 1–0 victory.

2006 South Asian Games

In the 2006 South Asian Games held across in Colombo, Sri Lanka from 14 to 26 August 2006, Pakistan again won the gold medal.

After advancing from the group stages, Essa's strike against Nepal led Pakistan to the final against Sri Lanka, which ended in a victory for the Green Shirts thanks to a goal by Adeel Ahmed in the half time.

Summer Olympic Games

Pakistan first participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics qualifiers, finishing last placed with Yemen, Qatar, UAE, and Iran within the group.

In 2007, Pakistan thrashed Singapore in both the home and away legs by 2-1 and 3-2, consecutively under the newly appointed head coach Muhammad Rashid, and won the preliminary round of 2008 Summer Olympics first time in the history of Olympics.

Asian Games

The under-23 side participated in their first ever tournament during the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, South Korea. They were put into a group with Kuwait, North Korea and Hong Kong.

The team subsequently felt short participating in the 2006, 2010, and 2014 editions.

FIFA restored membership of PFF on 13 March 2018. With Asian Games approaching in August, the team had very little time to prepare. PFF announced the signing of new Brazilian coach José Antonio Nogueira and started camps in Lahore. Then, the under 23 team along with 3 senior players flew to Indonesia in mid August to take part in Asian Games. On 14 August 2018, the team played its first group game against Vietnam, the then runner ups of 2018 AFC U-23 Championship, which resulted in a 3–0 loss. On 16 August 2018, the team faced a loss against Japan by a scoreline of 4–0. Pakistan defeated Nepal by 2–1 in their final group game which was the former's first win in Asian Games after 44 years. Pakistan expected to qualify for knockouts being 3rd in the group. However, the team fell short in terms of Goal Difference.

Result and fixtures

For all previous match results of the national under-23 team, see the team's results page. The following is a list of match results in the last 12 months, as well as any future matches that have been scheduled.

  Win   Draw   Loss

2023

Current staff

As of September 2023

Position	Name
Head coach	Shahzad Anwar
Assistant coach	Walid Javaid
Goalkeeping coach	Chaudary Nouman Ibrahim
Media manager	Muhammad Shoaib
Physiotherapist	Zubair Abdullah
Doctor	Muhammad Azam
Masseur	Abdul Qayyum
Team manager	Osama Ahmad

Players

Current squad

• The following players were called up for the 2024 AFC U-23 Asian Cup qualification.

No.	Pos.	Player	Date of birth (age)	Caps	Goals	Club
1	GK	Usman Ali	10 June 2004	1	0	POPO FC
20	GK	Hassan Ali	23 February 2003	0	0	Lyallpur
22	GK	Salman ul Haq	10 June 2001	2	0	SA Gardens
2	DF	Mohib Ullah	23 May 2005	3	0	Karachi United
3	DF	Haseeb Ahmed Khan	4 April 2000	3	0	PAF
4	DF	Abdullah Iqbal	27 July 2002	1	0	B.93
5	DF	Mamoon Moosa Khan	28 November 2000	3	0	PAF
12	DF	Mohammad Sohail		1	0	KRL
13	DF	Muhammad Sufyan		2	0	WAPDA
14	DF	Saeed Khan		1	0	KPT F.C.
15	DF	Abdullah Shah (Captain)	6 February 2001	2	0	Dhivehi Sifainge Club
6	MF	Mohammad Taha	1 May 2005	0	0	POPO FC
7	MF	Zaid Umar		2	0	KRL
11	MF	Harun Hamid	10 November 2003	3	1	St Albans City
19	MF	Nizam Uddin		0	0	Pakistan Army
21	MF	Alamgir Ghazi	9 May 2001	3	1	WAPDA
23	MF	Mohammad Hayan Khattak		1	0	POPO FC
8	FW	Shayak Dost	1 May 2002	3	0	WAPDA
9	FW	Muhammad Waheed	15 October 2002	2	0	KRL
10	FW	Waleed Khan	8 December 2004	2	0	POPO FC
16	FW	Moin Ahmed	28 November 2003	3	0	KRL
17	FW	Fareed Ullah	1 January 2001	3	0	Muslim FC
18	FW	Hamza Ahmed		3	0	Youngstar FC

Past squads

Asian Games

• 2002 Asian Games
• 2006 Asian Games
• 2010 Asian Games
• 2014 Asian Games
• 2018 Asian Games

South Asian Games

• 2004 South Asian Games

Competitive record

AFC U-23 Championship

AFC U-23 Championship was initially set to be held as AFC U-22 Championships in 2013 and its qualification matches in 2012, but the finals tournament was postponed to be played in January 2014.

AFC U-23 Championship record										AFC U-23 qualification record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	T	L	GF	GA		Pld	W	T	L	GF	GA
2014	did not qualify									5	0	1	4	0	8
2016										3	1	0	2	3	8
2018										did not enter
2020	Withdrawn									Withdrawn
2022	Suspended									Suspended
2024	To be determined									To be determined
2026
Totals	0/7	0 Titles	0	0	0	0	0	0		8	1	1	6	3	16

Olympic record

Summer Olympic Games record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1992	Did not qualify
1996
2000	Did not enter
2004	Did not qualify
2008
2012
2016
2020	to be determined
2024
2028
Total		0 / 7

Asian Games

Asian Games record
Year	Result	Position	Pld	W	T	L	GF	GA
Senior National Team
1951 – 1998	See Pakistan national football team
Under-23 National Team
2002	Round 1	23	3	0	0	3	0	14
2006	Round 1	21	3	0	0	3	2	6
2010	Group stage	22	3	0	1	2	0	8
2014	Group stage	24	2	0	1	1	0	3
2018	Group stage	17	3	1	0	2	2	8
2022	Did not enter
Total	5/6	-	11	1	1	9	4	31

South Asian Games

South Asian Games record
Year	Result	Pld	W	D*	L	GF	GA
2004	Champions	5	4	0	1	6	1
2006	Champions	5	4	0	1	9	4
2010	Group stage	3	0	0	3	5	2
2016	Did not enter
2019	Did not enter
Total	3/5	13	8	0	5	20	7

Honours

• South Asian Games
  • Champions (2): 2004, 2006

See also

• Pakistan Football Federation
• Pakistan national football team
• Pakistan national under-20 football team
• Pakistan national under-17 football team
• Pakistan women's national football team