Ali Ashfaq

Ali Ashfaq (އަލީ އަޝްފާގު; born 6 September 1985) is a Maldivian professional footballer who plays as a forward and captains the Maldives national team.

Nicknamed "Man of Steel" (ދަގަނޑޭ), he is regarded as one of the best players in the South Asian region.

A prolific and individualistic goalscorer, he is a free-kick specialist and a clinical finisher.

His trademark style of scoring is beating the defenders and rounding off the keeper to score.

In 2001, he won his first trophy, Dhivehi League.

The local football team, Club Valencia, took an interest in him, and in 2001 joined Valencia and thus started his professional football career.

On 26 October 2001, Ashfaq played his very first match in 2001 POMIS Cup tournament against Thailand's BEC Tero Sasana FC, wearing the Club Valencia jersey for the very first time.

Ashfaq got the opportunity in POMIS Cup, due to the three match suspension faced by Ali Umar.

In that match, he created a wonderful chance to score a goal as he edged past two defenders and goalkeeper, but he left for Ali Shiham to score.

Ashfaq scored his first goal for the club after beating the veteran sweeper Kappi and his powerless shot went into the left corner of the net in the second match of POMIS Cup as Valencia beat Victory Sports Club 1–0 on 30 October.

In the semi-final, Ashfaq assisted Ali Shiham to score Valencia's first goal against FC Kochin of India.

Valencia won the match by 2–0.

On 8 June 2002, Ashfaq netted his first goal of the season on their 5–0 win against Eagles.

Ashfaq played his first international club tournament against Mohun Bagan of India in 2002–03 AFC Champions League qualification on 9 October 2002.

In the first leg in Kolkata, Ashfaq leveled the game when Valenica was 2–1 down.

In November 2003, Ashfaq was honored with the most prestigious awards a Maldivian footballer would get, in the age of 18 – Maldivian Footballer of the Year and Golden Boot Award in 2003 season.

With Club Valencia, New Radiant, VB Sports Club and PDRM FA, he has won the Dhivehi League ten times, six Maldives FA Cups, four President's Cups, two Maldives Cup Winners' Cups, three Maldivian Charity Shields, two POMIS Cups and one Malaysia Premier League.

Ashfaq began his career with Club Valencia, where he played for five years.

He was crowned as the top scorer of Maldivian football season between 2003 and 2005 consecutively.

Ashfaq made his successes international debut for Maldives in December 2003 at the age of 18.

He has since been capped 90 times, and is Maldives' all-time top scorer with 57 goals.

In 2006, he signed for New Radiant and won several trophies, and he was named as Haveeru Best Footballer of the year in 2007.

He scored his first international goal in the 2006 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.

Ashfaq moved to Brunei's DPMM FC in October 2007, and he joined VB Sports Club after two months and stayed with them until 2011.

In 2008, he won the Most Valuable Player award in 2008 SAFF Championship.

He was among the Top 10 Players of Asia in 2008 and 2009.

He became captain in 2009, and he led Maldives to the semi-finals at the 2009 SAFF Championship.

He re-joined New Radiant in 2012, where he won all the domestic cups with in 2013 before moving to PDRM FA in 2014.

He also was shortlisted among the Top 10 Players to watch by ESPN in 2012.

He is considered as the best Maldivian footballer ever, most notably when he was named as the "World's 2nd best top goal scorer" in 2013 by IFFHS.

In September 2013, he became the all-time top scorer of the SAFF Championship after scoring 10 goals in 2013, with 18 goals altogether.

He was also named as South Asia's Best Player in 2014 by eultimategoal.com.

In November 2014, Ashfaq won the Best Import Player Award in the Malaysia National Football Awards, for his outstanding performances during the season.

In May 2014, Ashfaq won his first medal as the captain of Maldives as they finished third in the 2014 AFC Challenge Cup.

On 31 December 2015, Ashfaq concluded his last SAFF tournament from the semi-finals, remaining as the all-time top scorer of the SAFF Suzuki Cup with 20 goals.

Ashfaq was born in Malé, the capital of Maldives, where he grew up with his mother and brother Ahmed Ashfaq.

He reputedly showed a keen interest in football since a very young age, and preferred playing football to attending school.

He was the captain Majeediyya School football team when they played in the Inter school Football Tournament those years.

In March 2016, Ashfaq scored his 50th goal for Maldives.

He is the first Maldivian footballer to play abroad, and the only player to win a title with a foreign club.