Brazilian trainer Portella arrives

KARACHI: Brazilian trainer Jose Roberto Portella on Friday reached Lahore just hours before Pakistan players were set to begin their preparation for Asian Games and SAFF Cup at the Model Town Ground in Lahore.

The camp, carrying more than 50 home-grown players, is being conducted by Brazilian coach Jose Antonio Nogueira who arrived in Pakistan in April. This is after three years that national footballers are preparing for an international assignment. Pakistan missed international events during the last three years because of a conflict between Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) and its rival group headed by former PFF secretary Arshad Lodhi. During this period Pakistan could not organise its domestic events.

Nogueira has also picked his support staff, which includes two former Pakistan captains, Mohammad Essa and Jaffar Khan.Essa, an Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Licence B coach, was also a member of the PFF Technical Study Group (TSG) during the National Challenge Cup held in Karachi recently.

Chaman-born Essa got several awards for his services to football during his illustrious career. Jaffar will serve as the goalkeeping coach. He is considered Pakistan’s best goalie ever. He has to his credit a record of remaining unbeaten under the cage in 16 Premier League matches on the trot.

Jaffar, who played for Army in the recent Challenge Cup, has done AFC Licence C course. Nouman Ibrahim and Zahid Taj are the other goalkeeping coaches who will work during the camp. Both have served with Pakistan team before and are quite experienced. Nouman holds AFC Licence A and Zahid Licence B. Both have also done level-I goalkeeping coaching course in Bahrain.

Pakistan’s only pro-licence coach Shehzad Anwar and Licence A coach Mohammad Habib are the others in Nogueira’s support staff.Shehzad served as head coach of Pakistan team in the 2013 SAFF Cup in Nepal. Shehzad was elevated to the post after PFF sacked Serbian coach Zavisa Milosavljevic after his side faced a humiliating defeat against Afghanistan in Kabul.

In the first phase, PFF has only called home-based players. In the second phase, which will begin after Eid-ul-Fitr, some foreign-based players will join the camp.They will include Pakistan-grown foreign-based players Kaleemullah and Saddam Hussain who play in Turkey and Cyprus, respectively.

Nogueira plans to slash the strength in the camp to 40 within 15 days. In the Asian Games an under-23 team, along with three seniors, will be fielded. The senior side will play in SAFF Cup. Asian Games are slated to be held in Indonesian cities of Jakarta and Palembang from August 18 to September 2. SAFF Cup will be held in Bangladesh from September 4 to 15.