Kaleemullah expected to join national team training camp on Jan 10

KARACHI: Former Pakistan football team captain Kaleemullah is expected to join national team camp on January 10, it was learnt on Sunday.

The country's prolific professional striker on Saturday returned to his hometown Chaman from Iraq where he is associated with Zakho FC, which play in Kurdistan Premier League. Before joining Zakho, the professional footballer played a season in the Iraq's top league, while representing Al-Najaf FC.

According to sources close to Kaleem, the striker will try to adjust to the cold local conditions for a few days before joining the national team camp which is being held at the KRL Stadium in Rawalpindi for Malaysia tour in the third week of this week.

Because of his professional engagement and other reasons, Kaleem remained out of the Pakistan team for some time. Kaleem had received a letter from the Normalisation Committee of Pakistan Football Federation (PFF) a couple of days ago.

The camp is being supervised by head coach Tariq Lutfi. Former international Gohar Zaman is assisting him, while KRL Sports Manager Ayaz Butt is the manager and camp commandant. Kaleem is the most celebrated striker of the country, having played professional football in Kyrgyzstan, Turkey and United States.