ISLAMABAD: Federal Minister for Inter Provincial Coordination (IPC), Dr Fehmida Mirza on Thursday expressed the desire to see the world famous footballer Cristiano Ronaldo visiting Pakistan soon.

“I hope Ronaldo comes to Pakistan. We will arrange a conference and can have him as a speaker, as this will be encouraging for our players, she said during a meeting with Paulo Neves Pochinho, the Ambassador of the Portuguese Republic here at her office.

In the meeting, it was decided that Pakistan would officially write a letter to the Secretary of State for Youth and Sports of Portugal to invite Ronaldo and other Portugal sports heroes to Pakistan.

Matters of mutual interests were also discussed in the meeting with particular focus laid on the promotion of sports and tourism in the country.

Dr Fehmida said the Portuguese coaches could come to Pakistan to impart training to players in football, futsal, judo, table tennis etc.

“Pakistani players could also be sent to Portugal for training,” she added.

Likewise, she pointed out that Pakistan could extend help to Portugal in sports like squash, cricket and hockey.

While praising the sports model of the Portugal, the minister said their sports model was very impressive especially the way their players had evolved and earned their names in Olympics.

The Portuguese ambassador said Portugal clubs existed at different levels and the coaches visited these clubs to choose the best players who later participate in the world events.

Besides this, he said that all the big clubs ran their own academies as well as schooling facilities.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2020