 Fakhri withMohammedan Sporting in 1955 | |||
| Personal information | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Full name | Masood Fakhri | ||
| Date of birth | (1932-11-16)16 November 1932 | ||
| Place of birth | Toba Tek Singh,Punjab,British India | ||
| Date of death | 6 September 2016(2016-09-06) (aged 83) | ||
| Place of death | Bangor Teifi,Wales | ||
| Height | 5 ft 9 in (1.75 m)[1] | ||
| Position | Left winger | ||
| Youth career | |||
| 1949–1950 | Pakistan Raiders Club | ||
| Senior career* | |||
| Years | Team | Apps | (Gls) |
| 1950–1952 | Punjab | ||
| Rovers | |||
| 1952 | Pakistan Raiders Club | ||
| 1952–1954 | East Bengal | 30+ | (25) |
| 1953 | North-Western Railway | ||
| 1954 | Punjab | ||
| 1955–1956 | Kolkata Mohammedan | ||
| 1956–1957 | Bradford City | (0) | |
| International career | |||
| 1952–1955 | Pakistan | ||
| * Club domestic league appearances and goals | |||
Masood Fakhri (Punjabi:مسعود فخری; 16 November 1932 – 6 September 2016) was a Pakistani professionalfootballer who played as aleft winger.[2][3][4][5] A formerPakistani international, Fakhri was well known for his time with IndianKolkata clubsEast Bengal andMohammedan Sporting.[6][7][8] He was the first Pakistani footballer to score ahat trick in an international game at the1954 Asian Games, and the first player fromSouth Asia to play inEngland, where he played forBradford City before prematurely retiring.[9]
Fakhri was born on 16 November 1932 inToba Tek Singh,Punjab, In 1955Saadat Hasan Manto’s highly-acclaimedshort storyToba Tek Singh immortalised this town.[2]
Fakhri began his career with Pakistan Raiders Club ofLahore in 1949.[10] At the age of 18, he representedPunjab in the secondNational Football Championship held atQuetta in 1950, he won the third season played two years later in 1952.[11][12] He also returned to Raiders Club the same year to play in theRovers Cup inIndia where his team lost to Bombay Amateurs in the semi-finals, and they also beat Central Railways in the third place match.[10][13][14]
He started playing for clubs inIndia in 1952, and was 20-year-old when he signed withCalcutta Football League sideEast Bengal.[15][16][17] During his first season with the club, Fakhri helped his side win the Calcutta Football League and the prestigiousDurand Cup.[18][19][2] Fakhri usually played as aLeft winger and had scored 14 goals in theCalcutta Football League alongside scoring the winning goals in his first two matches against East Bengal's biggest rivals,Mohun Bagan, and thus became a fan favorite among East Bengal supporters.[2] Fakhri also helped the team win theDCM Trophy.[2][20]
From April to May 1953 he also returned to Pakistan representingNorth-Western Railway at theNational Football Championship.[10][12] Upon returning toKolkata, he was part of the East Bengal team that played against German sideKickers Offenbach the following month.[21] He also scored 5 goals in theCalcutta Football League.
In August 1953, he was part of the East Bengal senior team's tour to theWorld Youth Festival inBucharest, where he scored a goal against Lebanon XI in their 6–1 win and against Germany in the third-place play-offs in a 2–5 defeat.[22] He also featured in the friendly againstFC Torpedo Moscow the same month.[23][24] The team returned from Europe to participate in theIFA Shield and reached the final where they faced Indian Cultural League. In August 1953, thePakistan Football Federation reportedly prohibited Pakistani players from playing inIndia without a permit,[25][26] but East Bengal still fielded Masood Fakhri and fellow countryman Niaz Ali, stating they had received permission from thePFF. On 3 October 1953, in the 1953 IFA Shield final against the Indian Cultural League on the third replayed final, Fakhri scored forEast Bengal in the 34th minute.[27] The game would result in a 1–1 tie.[28] The I.C.L. team lodged a complaint with theIndian Football Association immediately after the match against East Bengal over their fielding the Pakistani players.[28] On 11 October 1953, the IFA announced I.C.L. as the winners of theIFA Shield[29][30] after East Bengal failed to produce a written permit for the Pakistani players from the PFF and suspended the club from all football activities until 31 December 1954.[29] East Bengal challenged the decision and took the IFA to court after receiving a letter from the PFF president,Dr. A. M. Malik on 25 October 1953,[31] and had their suspension revoked.[32]
In 1954, when theNational Football Championship was held inLahore, he returned to his former team this time featuring under the name ofPunjab Blue, finding the net in the 80th and 85th minutes againstNorth-Western Railway in the final winning by 3–0.[10]
In 1955, Fakhri signed with another Kolkata club,Mohammedan. He helped the team reach the 1955Rovers Cup final, finishing as runners-up, losing toMohun Bagan. The following year, he would go on to win the tournament withMohammedan Sporting againstMohun Bagan where the team avenged their loss from the previous year.[2][33]
Fakhri was contacted byBert Flatley, an EnglishFootball Association (FA) coach, regarding the idea of joiningBradford City. The team participated in theEnglish football league's third division. On August 8, 1956, Fakhri officially signed a contract with the team following negotiations withPeter Jackson, the manager of the club at the time. In addition to paying his fare of £120, City secured him employment at Bradford's textile factories. He left football early for personal reasons in 1957 after just one season with the team.[2][34]
Fakhri made his international debut withPakistan at1952 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament againstCeylon.[35] The same year, he played in a friendly match againstIran inKarachi which resulted in a draw.[10] He also played in the1954 and1955 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament.
Fakhri had most notably scored ahat-trick and became the first player fromPakistan to do so as his national team thumpedSingapore 6–2 in a group stage match at the1954 Asian Games inManila,Philippines. He completed thehat-trick in 5 minutes, scoring at the 42nd, 43rd and 47th minutes of the match.[36] He had also scored goals againstIndia andMyanmar during the period.[3]
Fakhri married Rhoda Eileen and lived inLlanrwst,North Wales. His brother's family settled inGreat Britain as well.[2]
After retiring from football, Fakhri lived out the rest of his life living inBangor Teifi,Wales.[2]He died in September 2016 at theGwynedd Hospital inWales.[37][11]
| No. | Date | Venue | Opponent | Score | Result | Competition | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 25 April 1954 | Jalan Besar Stadium,Kallang, Singapore |  Singapore | 2–2 | Friendly | [38] | |
| 2 | 2 May 1954 | Rizal Memorial Stadium,Manila, Philippines | Singapore | 3–1 | 6–2 | 1954 Asian Games | [36] |
| 3 | 4–1 | [36] | |||||
| 4 | 5–2 | [36] | |||||
| 5 | 5 May 1954 | Rizal Memorial Stadium, Manila, Philippines |  Burma | 2–1 | 2–1 | 1954 Asian Games | [36] |
| 6 | 19 December 1954 | Calcutta FC Ground,Kolkata, India | Burma | 1–1 | 1954 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament | [39] | |
| 7 | 26 December 1954 | Calcutta FC Ground, Kolkata, India |  India | 1–3 | 1954 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament | [39] | |
| 8 | 21 December 1955 | Dacca Stadium,Dhaka, East Pakistan |  Ceylon | 1–0 | 2–1 | 1955 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament | [39] |
| 9 | 2–0 | [39] | |||||
| 10 | 24 December 1955 | Dacca Stadium, Dhaka, East Pakistan | India | 1–2 | 1955 Asian Quadrangular Football Tournament | [39] |
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)Masood Fakhri: Left-Out. Played for East Bengal from 1952 - 1954. He hailed from Pakistan and was the first sub-continent Footballer to play professional league in England for a couple of years from 1955. He toured USSR and Romania with East Bengal Club in 1953.