KHYBER: The Golden Boot winner and international street child football star Tufail Shinwari is desperately looking for sponsors and official patronage as he is currently undergoing strenuous training to represent Pakistan in the forthcoming Norway Cup, an international street child football event.

Representing Pakistan in the street child international football tournament played in Doha, Qatar in October 2022, Tufail Shinwari scored 10 goals including a rare personal feat of three hat tricks and later winning the Golden Boot award after being adjudged among the best players of the tournament. Pakistan lost the final to Qatar.

He is now selected for Norway Cup, scheduled to be played from July 29 to Aug 5 in Oslo for which he is currently participating in a training camp in Islamabad along with other 16 teammates.

Hailing from Landi Kotal tehsil of Khyber, Tufail Shinwari told Dawn in an interview that neither the directorate of sports for newly merged districts nor Khyber Pakhtunkhwa sports authorities, or Pakistan Football Federation so far extended any assistance to him to get prepared for the important Norway Cup.

He lamented that the merged districts directorate of sports told him in plain words that it could not do anything for him owing to paucity of funds. He said that he submitted an application with the KP sports directorate for financial assistance prior to his departure for Oslo by the third week of July.

Mr Shinwari said that he needed special football boots along with other necessary sports gears for the Norway Cup. He said that he had to focus on a special diet, which he was unable to afford due to his family’s meagre financial resources.

His father, an assistant at a custom clearing office in Peshawar, looks after his five children with Tufail being the oldest. He said that although his family lived in Landi Kotal, he himself had to shift to Peshawar or Islamabad for better sports and training facilities.

“I cannot arrange a lodging facility for myself in Peshawar or Islamabad at my own expense,” said Mr Shinwari. He added that it was essential for him to keep himself fit and acquire modern techniques to remain in the international football arena.

Farhad Shinwari, a local sports analyst and a former international martial art player, had been pleading the case of Mr Shinwari at every sporting platform. He was also instrumental in introducing him to sports directorate both at the provincial and federal level.

Coming hard on the role of merged districts directorate of sports, Mr Farhad alleged that it failed to groom and patronise international players from tribal districts while it was busy in holding ‘useless’ sports festivals.

It was Muslim Hands, a charity organisation, which picked up Mr Shinwari and spotted in him the hidden talent of becoming an international street child star prior to the start of football tournament in Qatar in 2022.

Published in Dawn, July 13th, 2023