Before the independence of Pakistan,Kolkata Mohammedan, a club primarily based after the Muslim identity of the subcontinent attracted several players from all over theBritish Raj.[2] After thepartition in 1947, the club lost many of its elite patrons, members as well as players, who chose to move to newly formedIslamic state ofPakistan.[3] One of the players wasOsman Jan, who eventually became the first ever captain of the Pakistan national football team in their international debut in 1950. Some sources state he was fromMombasa,East Africa Protectorate,[4] while others state he was fromNew Delhi.[5]
Moideen Kutty, originally hailing fromMalappuram inSouth India eventually became the fourth captain in history of the national team. In 1947, during thePartition of British India, Kutty was serving in the Royal Indian Air Force, where the majority of his colleagues hailed from thewestern Punjab Province, which eventually became part of Pakistan after the independence. Consequently, he opted for Pakistan in order to remain alongside his teammates and continue his football journey.[6] Consequently, Kutty became a part of the Royal Pakistan Air Force, which emerged following the partition of the British Indian military forces. He continued his football involvement in his new homeland.[7] He was appointed captain of the Pakistan team for the1954 Asian Games inManila.[8][9] Other players born outside Pakistan includeRashid Chunna fromKolkata,[10] andGhulam Rabbani fromNew Delhi.[11]
In 2011, Australia basedAhmad Akbar Khan became the first non-English player to feature for Pakistan in a test match against Palestine.[18] Throughout the years, the presence of overseas players was generally not well received by some local stakeholders, as it was felt that they did not improve the level of the team or accused them of lack of commitment because of their difficulty to join the team 15 days before the training camps.[19] Former players such asMujahid Tareen,Nasir Ismail,Muhammad Essa andJaffar Khan,[20][21][22][23] and coaches such asTariq Lutfi andAkhtar Mohiuddin,[24][25][26][27] also criticised the inclusion of overseas players several times.
The inclusion of Serbian coachZaviša Milosavljević brought Norway bornOmar Malik and Denmark basedHassan Bashir,Yousuf Butt andMohammad Ali for a friendly againstSingapore in 2012. The next year, Yousuf's brotherYaqoob Butt also joined the squad.[28] The appointment of Bahraini coachMohammad Al-Shamlan was again marred by controversies as he constantly sidelined overseas players in important competitions in hope to develop local talent.[29][30][31] However, a notable inclusion was of professional footballerNabil Aslam in 2015 who was scouted several times previously.[32]After a long period of inactivity due to ban on the Pakistan Football Federation by FIFA,Adnan Mohammad andNavid Rahman were recruited, followed byRahis Nabi andSamir Nabi.[33] After another ban and period of inactivity, the team received another influx of overseas players in 2022 and 2023 to compensate for the inactivity of the domestic setup for years.[34][35] However, the action was again denounced by previous critics.[36][37][38][1]
This is a list of football players who represented the Pakistan national football team in international football and were born outside Pakistan.
The following players:
have played at least one game for the full (senior male) Pakistan national team; and
were born outside Pakistan.
This list includes players who havedual citizenship with Pakistan and/or have become naturalised Pakistani citizens. The players are ordered per the year of debut.
Australia
England
Canada
Denmark
New Zealand
Norway