Unsung hero: Former Pakistani footballer Masood Fakhri passes away

He was the first Pakistani to score a hat-trick at the Asian Games

KARACHI: Former footballer Masood Fakhri, who was the first Pakistani to score a hat-trick at the Asian Games, passed away in Wales, United Kingdom last week.

Fakhri, who may just be one of the first football superstars of the country, was unfortunately little known in Pakistan.

This could have been primarily because the footballer had a short career in the country but managed to make his mark as the first Pakistani to score a hat-trick in the international arena for the country at the age of 22.

The left-winger was about 24 years old when he left Pakistan for greener pastures in the UK and kept a low profile.

He began his career in 1950, according to one of the local football writers Riaz Ahmed, who wrote a profile on Fakhri in Urdu in 2013.



According to Ahmed, Fakhri was born in 1932 in Toba Tek Singh and began his football career with Pakistan Raiders Club in 1949. By the age of 18, he had represented Punjab in the national championship.

He played for Pakistan from 1952 to 1955 and left the country by 1956. In his career, he played against countries including India, Iran, Sri Lanka and Burma, Myanmar as well as East Bengal.

Former Pakistan captain Ali Nawaz Baloch said while growing up in Lyari, he was aware of Fakhri’s name. “He definitely was a star. I never saw his game, because I was very young at that time, but we knew about him, he was famous,” Baloch reminisced.

“He definitely left a mark on Pakistan football. I knew about him even while growing up in Lyari."

“I wish I had met him, but he left for England. Later we used to hear he played for the third or fourth division clubs in the UK. He never came back to Pakistan, nor did he play for the country again,” he elaborated.

Baloch went on to add that, “I wish he had [played for Pakistan]. I’m sure more people would have known about him then. It is sad that these amazing players were mostly out of sight.”

Fakhri delivered impressive performances as an individual player including the hat-trick at the 1954 Asian Games in Manila, where he scored against Singapore 6-2. Jameel Akhtar and Mohiyuddin Kutty were the other two scorers in the match.



Although Pakistan failed to qualify for the knockout round in the competition, the team did finish on the sixth place out of 12 others.

Fakhri passed away at the age of 83 at Gwynedd Hospital on September 6, his family had an obituary published in one of the local papers in the UK. Though he could not have a longer career for the country, he inspired the next generation to become successful footballers.