Arif Mehmood clinch top scorer award as WAPDA finish 3rd

Arif Mehmood clinch top scorer award as WAPDA finish 3rd

Lahore, 13 December : Multan-born international striker Arif Mehmood, only Pakistani to score hat-trick in history of SAFF Championship (three against Bhutan on Tuesday) clinched Leading Scorer award in Pakistan Premier Football League. WAPDA’s popular spearhead struck twenty goals in PPFL that saw 454 goals after completion of all 182 matches of event. Arif, who missed several key matches of WAPDA due to camp and event of SAFF Championship 2009, took Rs.50,000 on Sunday for winning top scorer award for the fourth time in last six editions. Arif, also skipper of WAPDA, being only player to reach twenties. His goals were too much for other rivals as second placed Asmat Ullah (PEL) and Muhammad Ishtiaq (HBL) were far behind with eleven goals.

Making international debut during Test Series in Sri Lanka 2002, he appeared in U17 Asian Championship 2002, U20 Asian Championship 2002, 14th Asian Games 2002, World Cup QR 2003. He pocketed gold in 9th SAF Games 2004 and later on represented Pakistan in Taif's Islamic Games, Indo Pak Series and SAFF Championship in 2005 and 14th Asian Cup Qualifiers in 2006,

Arif was also leading marksman in PPFL 2004, 2006 and 2007 while Imran Hussain (Army) and Muhammad Rasool (KRL) grabbed top scorer award in 2005 and 2008 respectively. Arif returned to international soccer after two years gap in 2008 and played in SAFF Championship and Malaysia friendly on 10 October 2008. Georg Kottan also picked him for Thailand Tour and SAFF Championship 2009. Twenty-six years old sharp-shooter is also the only player of PPFL to register four hat-tricks in ongoing show :


All the Scorers:

20 : Arif Mehmood (WAPDA)

11 : Asmat Ullah (PEL), Muhammad Ishtiaq (HBL)

10 : Nomi Martin Gill (Navy), Bilal Ahmed (HBL), Abdul Rehman (KESC), Zahid Ahmed (KPT)

9 : Shakir Lashari (PIA), Imran Niazi (WAPDA)

8 : Zeeshan Ali (PIA), Qamar Zaman (WAPDA)

7 : Sharjeel Vicky (Army), Ismail Baba (KPT), Sajjad Ahmed (Navy) Muhammad Qasim (KRL)

6 : Zeeshan Javed (WAPDA), Nasr Ullah Khan (PIA), Abdul Hadi (Afghan), Mehmood Khan (KRL), Muhammad Asif (NBP)

5 : Abid Ghafoor (PEL), Muhammad bin Younus (KPT), Muhammad Rasool, Aurangzeb (KESC), Fariooq Shah (NBP), Aman Ullah (Afghan), Asif Mehmood (Navy)

4 : Muhammad Wasim (KPT), Yasir Sabir (NBP), Muneer Ahmed (PMC), Ansar Abbas (Army), Muhammad Essa (KESC), Farhan Qadir, Asif Bakhsh (Navy), Muhammad Adil, Kamran Ishaq (PEL), Muhammad Iqbal (PAF), Amjad Yousof (HBL, Kalim Ullah (KRL)

3 : Mudassar Saeed, Rizwan Asif (KRL), Shahid Saleem (KPT), Adeem Shahzad, Imran Abdullah, Imran Hashmi, Wasim Ullah (PIA), Abdul Nasir (Afghan), Muhammad Shair (PEL), Muhammad Shahid, Zulfiqar Ali Shah (WAPDA), Muhammad Zeeshan (PAF), Usman Manzoor, Muhammad Asif (PMC), Jaffar Ali, Imran Hussain, Muhammad Imran (Army), Khayal Muhammad (HBL), Own goals

2 : Sagheer Ahmed, Shahid Ali (PEL), Afzal Ur Rehman, Saleh Khan, Muhammad Ehsan, Irfan Ali (PAF), Haroon Yousof, Bashir Ahmed (PMC), Hanif Majeed, Abdul Ghaffar (PIA), Abid Ali, Jaffar Khan, Muhammad Khabab (Army), Javed Hamza (KESC), Muhammad Jamil, Muhammad Habib, Saif Ullah, Sana Ullah (Baloch FC), Abid Khan, Fakhar Hayat ,Samar Ishaq, Shahid Ahmed (KRL), Akhtar Mamil (KPT), Muhammad Imran (NBP), Bilal (Navy),

1 : Muhammad Bilal, Muhammad Rashid, Waheed Hameed, Safi Ullah, Ejaz Sarfraz (PEL), Khuda Bahsh, Yasir Iqbal (WAPDA), Muhammad Jamil, Amir Khan, Faheem Afzal, Muhammad Asif, Muhammad Farooq, Arif Nawaz (PAF), Naeem Ullah, Rehan Aslam, Muhammad Rehman, Muzammil Hussain, Muhammad Qais (PMC), Muhammad Haji, Zubair Moazzam, Abdul Jabbar, Nazeer Ahmed, Ehsan Ali, Nadeem Tariq (PIA), Muhammad Shabbir, Muhammad Sharif, Ijaz Ahmed, Tanveer Shahid (Army), Muhammad Ali, Haji Ahmed Shah, Jadeed Khan Pathan, Abdullah, Fazal Rehman, Himmat Khan (Afghan), Qadeer Khan, Muhammad Ibrahim, Aurangzeb, Abdullah, Zakir Lashari, Muhammad Habib (HBL), Ahmed, Abdul Ghafoor (KESC), Muhammad Ahmed, Zia Us Salam (KRL), Faraz Anwar, Naveed Ahmed, Shakir Taj (KPT), Muhammad Iddriss, Najeeb Ullah (Baloch FC), Muhammad Ashraf, Atiq Ullah, Abbas Ali (NBP), Nasir Hussain, Rizwan, Jabbar Hussain, Abdul Haq, Muhammad Basharat (Navy)