SOUTH ASIAN IDOL:
CHOPRA KEEN TO NURTURE TALENT
NORWAY international Ghayas Zahid, who became the first player of south Asian origin to score for the country, wants more south Asian heritage players from across the world to make it at the highest level.
Last month, Zahid, who is of Pakistani heritage, answered Norway’s SOS call and scored on his competitive international debut in the Nations League game against Austria.
“The reaction was amazing even before we played the game. I’ve known for a long time that no south Asian had netted for Norway at senior international level. Since we were kids, we knew there have not been a lot of players from Pakistan, who have come through in Norway, and played at the highest level in Norway. There are some of us, we are not many – so you know that, you have that in your head,” Zahid, whose only previous international appearance was as a 90th-minute substitute in a 2018 friendly against Panama, told Sky Sports News. APOEL Nicosia midfielder Zahid, who is the first player of Pakistani heritage ever to play in the Champions League, is keen to see more players from south Asian backgrounds make the breakthrough at the top level.
“When I got my move out of Norway, I also started to understand that I have possibilities to do some things that very few people from my origin have done, like when I played in the Champions League or on the national team now,” said Zahid.
“I knew when I was going into those games that there are not a lot of people from my origin that have done that before and. That makes the goal a little bit special.”
Norwegian authorities had banned the national team from travelling to their penultimate Nations League game in Romania last month, ordering the entire squad and staff to quarantine for 10 days after defender Omar Elabdellaoui returned a positive Covid-19 test.
To avoid forfeiting their final match in Austria three days later, Norwegian football authorities handed the reins to U21 boss Leif Gunnar Smerud – he scrambled together 18 players from across Europe, including Zahid, who dashed to Oslo for Covid-19 testing before flying to Vienna for the game.
The south Asian player gave Norway a second-half lead in Vienna in the match.
Adrian Grbic equalised deep into injury-time to deny Norway the most unlikely of victories in the game on November 18.
Sky Sports is championing greater visibility of south Asians in football.