Brazilian Pak soccer coach departs with heavy heart

KARACHI: With Pakistan seemingly moving towards international football isolation the country’s Brazilian coach Jose Antonio Nogueira on Wednesday left Pakistan with a heavy heart for his hometown Sao Paulo, not knowing what would be his fate as Pakistan coach.

However he says that he did not care for himself but fears for the boys with whom he worked so hard. “I am very sad not for myself but for the boys with whom I worked hard for the last few months,” Nogueira told ‘The News’ hours after returning from Qatar on Wednesday.

“I am going home and will be waiting for Pakistan Football Federation’s (PFF) call,” Nogueira said.“If football is halted it would be a big loss for Pakistan and for those actively involved in the sport. We have raised a good lot and I am worried about that,” Nogueira said.

“Look we had a good tour of Qatar where we tried our best to test all the players against different nations. It was an effort to reach to the best possible combination ahead of the Olympic Qualifiers to be held in March next year,” the coach said. Soon afterwards Pakistan was restored by FIFA in spring this year the PFF hired the services of Nogueira and Brazilian trainer Jose Portella who both did a commendable job during the last few months. Under Nogueira Pakistan returned to international football after three years of isolation when they featured in the Asian Games in Indonesia last summer.

Immediately after that Pakistan visited Dhaka where they finished third in the SAFF Championship. Pakistan had last ended third in the same event in 1997. Under Nogueira, Pakistan also visited Bahrain for training before the Asiad. Pakistan then toured Palestine last month where the Green-shirts lost to the hosts 2-1 in international friendly held on November 17, the FIFA day, at Al-Ram. On Qatar’s tour recently Pakistan played against Palestine, Qatar Army national team and Afghanistan Under-23 team. Pakistan lost to strong Palestine 2-0, Pakistan Under-23 went down to Qatar Army national team 3-1 and Pakistan Under-23 team held Afghanistan Under-23 to a 1-1 draw in their last outing of the two-week tour on Tuesday.