Pakistan national football team records and statistics explained

The following is a list of the Pakistan national football team's competitive records and statistics.

The Pakistan national football team represents Pakistan in men's international football in FIFA-authorized events and is controlled by the Pakistan Football Federation, the governing body for football in Pakistan. Pakistan became a member of FIFA in 1948 and joined the Asian Football Confederation in 1950.

Pakistan's national team debuted in 1950 and has yet to qualify for the FIFA World Cup finals. Pakistan has never qualified for any major tournament outside the South Asian region, although on regional level the team has won the 1952 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament, and has achieved gold at the South Asian Games in 1989 and 1991. Pakistan had a brief period of emergence in the 1950s and early 1960s, but as the global popularity of football surged, the sport's standing in Pakistan deteriorated. The standard achieved in the early years could not be maintained because of lack of organization of the game and the administration's lack of attention to football.^[1] Football has also struggled to gain popularity in Pakistan largely due to the heavy influence of cricket in South Asia.^[2]

Individual records

Player records

^[3]

Players in bold are still active with Pakistan.

Most appearances

width=30px	Rank	Player	width=50px	Caps	width=50px	Goals	Period
1	Haroon Yousaf	51	3	1992–2003
2	Jaffar Khan	46	0	2001–2013
3	Samar Ishaq	43	3	2006–2013
4	Muhammad Essa	39	11	2001–2009
5	Tanveer Ahmed	30	3	1999–2008
6	Hassan Bashir	29	9	2012–2023
	Yousuf Butt	29	0	2012–present
8	Adnan Ahmed	27	4	2007–2013
9	Abdul Aziz	26	0	2005–2011
	Muhammad Adil	26	0	2011–2018
	Kaleemullah Khan	26	4	2011–2020

NB Exact figures of players before 1989 and 1999 are not yet known and yet to be researched. This absence of data is notable for long-serving players not appearing in the list such as Zafar Iqbal, Mateen Akhtar, Sharafat Ali, Qazi Ashfaq & Mohammad Tariq Hussain, along with many others, who are likely to have accumulated a higher number of caps than currently recorded. Additionally, player appearances are also missing in the 2000 AFC Asian Cup qualification, two of the 2002 friendly matches against Sri Lanka, and 2006 friendly against Palestine in the primary source and yet to be updated.

Top goalscorers

See also: List of Pakistan national football team hat-tricks.

Rank	Player	Goals	Caps	Ratio	Period
1	Muhammad Essa	11	39		2001–2009
2	Masood Fakhri	10	—	—	1952–1956
	Muhammad Umer		—	—	1956–1968
	Sharafat Ali		—	—	1984–1992
5	Hassan Bashir	9	29		2012–2023
6	Moosa Ghazi	7	—	—	1955–1967
	Arif Mehmood		21		2005–2012
8	Qayyum Changezi	6	—	—	1955–1963
	Mohammad Nauman Khan		—	—	1991–1997
	Sarfraz Rasool		22		1997–2003

NB Goalscorers of some matches before 1989, and the goalscorer against Nepal at the 1993 SAARC Gold Cup are not yet known and yet to be researched.

Captains

See main article: List of Pakistan national football team captains.

• In major Continental and International tournaments. For the complete list, see the main article.

Player	Tournament(s)
Moideen Kutty	1954 Asian Games
Nabi Chowdhury	1958 Asian Games
Abdul Ghafoor	1974 Asian Games
Muhammad Naveed	1986 Asian Games
Mateen Akhtar	1990 Asian Games
Jaffar Khan	2006 AFC Challenge Cup

Manager records

See also: List of Pakistan national football team managers.

Competition records

FIFA World Cup

FIFA World Cup record										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position
1930 to 1938	Part of									Part of
1950 to 1986	Did not enter									Did not enter
1990	Did not qualify									4	0	0	4	1	12
1994										8	0	0	8	2	36
1998										4	0	0	4	3	22
2002										6	0	1	5	5	29
2006										2	0	0	2	0	6
2010										2	0	1	1	0	7
2014										2	0	1	1	0	3
2018										2	0	1	1	1	3
2022										2	0	0	2	1	4
2026										8	1	1	6	2	26
2030	To be determined									To be determined
2034
Total			—	—	—	—	—			40	1	5	34	15	148

AFC Asian Cup

AFC Asian Cup record										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position
1956	Withdrew									Withdrew
1960	Did not qualify									6	2	1	3	8	10
1964	Withdrew									Withdrew
1968	Did not qualify									3	0	1	2	1	4
1972	Withdrew									Withdrew
1976
1980
1984	Did not qualify									4	1	0	3	4	14
1988										4	0	0	4	1	12
1992										2	0	0	2	0	9
1996										2	0	0	2	0	7
2000										4	0	0	4	0	16
2004										2	1	0	1	3	3
2007										8	0	1	7	4	23
2011	Did not enter									Did not enter
2015
2019	Did not qualify									2	0	1	1	1	3
2023										2	0	0	2	1	4
2027	To be determined									To be determined
Total		0/18	—	—	—	—	—	—		39	4	4	31	23	105

AFC Challenge Cup

The AFC Challenge Cup was held every two years from 2006 through 2014.

AFC Challenge Cup record										Qualification record
Year	Result	Position
2006	Group stage	10th	3	1	1	1	3	4		No qualification
2008	Did not qualify									3	2	0	1	12	10
2010										3	1	2	0	9	3
2012										3	1	0	2	3	6
2014										3	1	0	2	2	2
Total	Group stage	1/5	3	1	1	1	3	4		12	5	2	5	26	21

Asian Games

Football at the Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2002.

Asian Games record
Year	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA
1951	Did not enter
1954	Round 1	2	1	0	1	7	4
1958	Round 1	2	0	1	1	2	4
1962	Did not enter
1966
1970
1974	Round 1	3	1	0	2	6	13
1978	Did not enter
1982
1986	Round 1	4	0	0	4	2	15
1990	Round 1	3	0	0	3	1	16
1994	Did not enter
1998
2002 to present	See Pakistan national under-23 football team
Total	5/13	14	2	1	11	18	52

South Asian Games

Football at the South Asian Games has been an under-23 tournament since 2004.

South Asian Games record
Year	Position
1984	Did not enter
1985	Fourth place	3	1	1	1	6	5
1987	Third place	3	2	1	0	2	0
1989	Champions	3	2	1	0	5	2
1991	Champions	3	2	1	0	3	0
1993	Group stage	2	0	1	1	3	4
1995	Withdrew
1999	Group stage	3	1	0	2	5	9
2004 to present	See Pakistan national under-23 football team
Total	6/8	17	8	5	4	24	20

SAFF Championship

SAFF Championship record
Year	Result	Position
1993	Fourth place	4th	3	0	2	1	2	6
1995	Group stage	5th	2	1	0	1	1	2
1997	Third place	3rd	4	2	0	2	3	4
1999	Group stage	6th	2	0	0	2	0	6
2003	Fourth place	4th	5	3	0	2	5	4
2005	Semi-finals	4th	4	2	1	1	2	1
2008	Group stage	8th	3	0	0	3	2	9
2009	Group stage	5th	3	1	1	1	7	1
2011	Group stage	5th	3	0	3	0	1	1
2013	Group stage	5th	3	1	1	1	3	3
2015	Withdrew
2018	Semi-finals	4th	4	2	0	2	6	5
2021	Suspended
2023	Group stage	8th	3	0	0	3	0	9
Total	Third place	12/14	39	12	8	19	32	51

ECO Cup

ECO Cup record
Year	Position
1965	Third place	2	0	0	2	2	7
1967	Third place	2	0	0	2	4	9
1969	Third place	2	0	0	2	4	8
1970	Third place	2	0	0	2	1	10
1974	Third place	2	0	1	1	3	4
1993	Seventh place	2	0	0	2	0	9
Total	6/6	12	0	1	11	14	47

Head-to-head record

See also: Pakistan national football team results. Last match updated : on 11 June 2024^{[4] [5]}

Pakistan national football team head-to-head records
Opponents							GD	Confederation
	4	3	0	1	4	4	0	AFC
	1	1	0	0	5	1	+4	AFC
	18	6	5	7	10	17	−8	AFC
	3	3	0	0	13	1	+12	AFC
	1	1	0	0	6	0	+6	AFC
	5	1	1	3	2	5	−3	AFC
	8	1	2	5	8	23	−15	AFC
	5	3	1	1	7	5	+2	AFC
	1	0	0	1	1	3	−2	CAF
	1	1	0	0	9	2	+7	AFC
	26	3	9	14	21	41	−20	AFC
	4	0	1	3	2	9	−7	AFC
	14	1	1	12	11	66	−55	AFC
	9	1	1	7	6	40	−34	AFC
	2	0	1	1	2	4	−2	UEFA
	3	1	1	1	5	6	−1	AFC
	9	0	0	9	1	34	−33	AFC
	3	0	0	3	0	14	−14	UEFA
	1	0	0	1	0	1	−1	CAF
	4	0	0	4	0	10	−10	AFC
	4	1	0	3	1	7	−6	AFC
	3	0	0	3	2	17	−15	AFC
	3	2	1	0	7	2	+5	AFC
	6	1	1	4	4	16	−12	AFC
	11	4	3	4	9	10	−1	AFC
	1	0	0	1	0	3	−3	CAF
	1	0	0	1	0	5	−5	UEFA
(inc. )	8	3	2	3	10	13	−3	AFC
	18	7	4	7	18	19	−1	AFC
	4	0	1	3	2	12	−10	AFC
	6	0	0	6	2	13	−11	AFC
	1	0	0	1	1	3	−2	AFC
	1	0	0	1	0	5	−5	AFC
	2	0	0	2	0	7	−7	AFC
	7	2	1	4	9	17	−8	AFC
	3	0	0	3	1	19	−18	AFC
	20	8	4	8	28	31	−3	AFC
	4	0	0	4	1	12	−11	AFC
	6	1	0	5	7	20	−13	AFC
	4	0	1	3	9	16	−7	UEFA
	1	0	0	1	0	3	−3	AFC
	5	0	0	5	4	17	−13	AFC
(inc. )	1	0	1	0	1	1	0	AFC
(inc. )	5	1	1	3	6	11	−5	AFC
Total	250	57	42	149	235	565	−330	44 Nations

Other records

Biggest victories

• 7–0 (5 August 1960)
• 9–2 (6 April 2008)
• 7–0 (8 December 2009)

Biggest defeats

• 9–1 (12 March 1969)
• 0–8 (28 May 1993)

Honours

Regional

• South Asian Games
  • Gold medal (2): 1989, 1991
  • Bronze medal (1): 1987
• SAFF Championship
  • Third place (1): 1997

Friendly

• ECO Cup
  • Third place (5): 1965, 1967, 1969, 1970, 1974
• Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament
  • Champions (1): 1952
  • Runners-up (2): 1953, 1955^[6]
  • Third place (1): 1954
• Merdeka Cup
  • Runners-up (1): 1962
• Quaid-e-Azam International Cup
  • Runners-up (2): 1976, 1986
  • Third place (2): 1982, 1987
• Philippine Peace Cup
  • Third place (1): 2013

See also

• Pakistan national football team
• Pakistan national football team results
• List of Pakistan national football team hat-tricks

Notes and References

1. Web site: 2024-06-26 . Rising Popularity of Football in Pakistan Reflects Growing Interest in the Sport . 2024-08-11 . Daily Times . en-US.
2. Web site: Sohail . Shahrukh . 2020-11-01 . Football: Soccer's Scoreless Sheet . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20201102192239/https://www.dawn.com/news/1587949 . 2 November 2020 . 2020-11-02 . . en.
3. Web site: Pakistan . National Football Teams . 20 June 2023 . 20 November 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20231120102937/https://www.national-football-teams.com/de/country/140/2023/Pakistan.html . live .
4. Web site: World Football Elo Ratings . 2023-08-11 . www.eloratings.net . en.
5. Web site: 2014-08-17 . Pakistan . 2023-09-10 . worldfootball.net . en.
6. Web site: Asian Quadrangular Tournament (Colombo Cup) 1952–1955: 1955 (Dacca, Pakistan). Neil. Morrison. RSSSF. 1999. 17 August 2022. 20 August 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220820110914/https://www.rsssf.org/tablesb/brindies-quad.html#55.