Essa joins KRL as coach, preparing for Challenge Cup

KARACHI: Pakistan football team former captain Mohammad Essa has joined the country's most successful team, record five-time Premier League winners Khan Research Laboratories (KRL), as a coach.

Essa has already taken charge of his team which is preparing in Rawalpindi for the National Football Challenge Cup which will begin in the next few days.

“It’s a great challenge for me to build the side which mostly has young blood in it and lacks exposure,” Essa told 'The News' on Friday.

“We are preparing well for the Challenge Cup and hopefully we will pull off the desired performance in the most important event,” said Essa, also a former play-maker.

Essa represented KRL as a player and captain from 2005 to 2010.

Essa, an AFC License B coach, also has the experience of working as an assistant coach of Pakistan team for one year.

He also served the now disbanded K-Electric both as a player cum coach for almost nine years

KRL, also having lifted Challenge Cup for six times, are being managed by Ayaz Butt. And it is Butt who has made KRL a strong football power by providing top facilities to his players and coaching staff.

Aslam Khan, former Pakistan goalkeeping coach, is also associated with KRL as a coach.

Essa said that he is lucky to have Ayaz Butt with him who is a towering personality as a manager and he has proved that.

“I am lucky to have Ayaz Butt as he is a strong personality and we jointly will leave no stone unturned in making KRL as a strong football force,” Essa said.