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LAHORE: Multan-born international striker Arif Mehmood is looking for another Leading Scorer award in Pakistan Premier Football League.
Mehmood is the only Pakistani to score a hat-trick in the history of SAFF Championship (against Bhutan on 8 December 2009 in Dhaka). The Wapda player has struck 17 goals so far in the ongoing PPFL that has seen 96 matches being played so far.
Those 96 matches produced 239 goals and Arif, who is also the skipper of Wapda, has scored the highest number of goals. Second placed Jadeed Khan of Afghan FC is far behind with six goals.
Mehmood made his international debut during the Test Series in Sri Lanka in 2002; he appeared in the 2002 U-17 and U-20 Asian Championships and the14th Asian Games.
He pocketed a gold medal in the 9th SAF Games in 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.
Mehmood was also a leading marksman in PPFL 2004, 2006, 2007 and 2009 while Imran Hussain of Army and Muhammad Rasool of KESC grabbed the top scorer award in 2005 and 2008 respectively.
Mehmood returned to international football after a gap of two years in 2008 and played in the SAFF Championship and a friendly against Malaysia on 10 October 2008. George Kottan, the former coach of the national team, also picked him for the Thailand Tour and the 2009 SAFF Championship.
The twenty-six year old sharp-shooter is also the only player of PPFL to register two hat-tricks in the ongoing competition. Zafar Majeed of KPT and Jadeed Khan of Afghan FC have also recorded hat-tricks in the current season of PPFL. – PPI
