Spain’s Atletico Madrid are taking on a challenge tougher than winning La Liga – developing football in cricket-mad Pakistan, where bat and ball are king, pitches come with stumps not goalposts, and even the prime minister is a former World Cup winner.
During a recent session at the club’s new facility in Lahore – the country’s first European football academy – a cabal of Spanish coaches watched as a new class of young Pakistani hopefuls fired off penalty kicks.
“We are not looking for players for Atletico Madrid because we know that this is going to be very difficult… Our target is to improve the football here,” coach Javier Visea told AFP.
To succeed in carving out a place for football, they will need to overcome marginal government support, poor infrastructure and a troubled history with FIFA that has resulted in multiple bans for violating the body’s rules.
The country remains on thin ice with the governing organisation, currently sits 199th in the FIFA rankings and has still never qualified for a football World Cup.
Things weren’t always so dire.
The national squad boasted a top 10 place in Asian football until the 1970s. The sport remains widely watched by middle-class Pakistanis, and football video games like the FIFA franchise are as popular as ever. Read more