No one hits the ball as hard as drag flicker Sohail Abbas. Fullback Sohail can be called a late starter as he joined the Pakistan hockey team at the age of 23 in 1998. Since then he has scored 328 international goals, which is a world record in hockey.

In doing so he has also broken many notable records including the Dutch penalty corner specialist Paul Litjen’s record of scoring 58 goals in a year. Sohail topped that with 60 goals in 1999. Being the leading scorer at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney with 11 goals, he beat former centre-forward Hasan Sardar’s 1984 Los Angeles Olympics’ 10-goal record.

Sohail has been the pride of the Pakistan hockey team on several occasions. With him as part of the team we won gold in the 2010 Asian Games and the Sultan Azlan Shah Cup in 1999, 2000 and 2003. Last year’s Asian Games saw him in full form in the final against Malaysia in November, when he gave Pakistan the lead by scoring off a penalty corner to give his team a 1-0 lead in the 28th minute. Later, forward Rehan Butt extended it to 2-0 as Malaysia failed to score.

Sohail’s able contribution helped the Green Shirts win the Asian Games after 20 years.