Muhammad Essa

Muhammad Essa Khan (Urdu: ; born on 20 November 1983) is a Pakistani former footballer who played as a forward. Essa is one of the most well known faces in Pakistani football, due to his regular goal scoring at international level.

Club career

Born in the football-mad city of Chaman in Pakistan's Balochistan province, he played in the Afghan Club Chaman youth team before signing for PTCL FC. He won the old 2003 PFF President's Cup with PTCL FC. In the inaugural 2004 PPL season he returned to his home town club Afghan Club Chaman with his goals helping them to survive relegation. The following season, the striker transferred to WAPDA FC but could not help them retain their PPL title; finishing second to Pakistan Army FC.

In 2005, he was offered a playing contract from major Indian football team East Bengal Club, but the PFF seemingly turned it down. He moved to KRL and helping them finish 3rd in the 2006–07 season. Essa played in the Geo Super Football League for Quetta Zorawar as captain with the club coming second in the league round and losing semi-finalists in the knock-out round of the tournament, although he was awarded the SFL 2007 Player of the Tournament trophy.

On 13 August 2007, was awarded the 'Salaam Pakistan Award' alongside tennis star Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and female squash player Maria Toor Pakay for their contributions to sport by the President of Pakistan.

In 2009, he opened an academy at his home town in Chaman, called the Essa Khan Academy.

International career

He was discovered by then Pakistan youth team and Under 23 manager John Layton back in early 1999 and found his way into the Pakistan national football team soon enough, receiving his first cap in 2000. In 2004, Essa was called up to the Pakistan U23 squad for the 2004 South Asian games. He ended the tournament as top scorer and was player of the tournament, and helped Pakistan win Gold.

Essa’s most famous moment came when he scored from a free-kick against India in the first match of the 2005 Pakistan-India friendly series, at the Ayub National Stadium, Quetta to tie the game 1–1 with minutes to go before the final whistle. He scored again in the 3-0 win against India at the Punjab Stadium in Lahore. In 2006, he captained Pakistan for the 2006 South Asian Games winning another gold medal. He retained his captaincy for the 2008 AFC Challenge Cup qualifying campaign. Despite a 2–0 win against Chinese Taipei in the first match, they lost 7–1 to Sri Lanka which made Pakistan's 9–2 demolition of Guam meaningless as they finished behind on points to Sri Lanka, thus failing to qualify for the main round. Because of injury, Essa had to miss the SAFF Cup 2008.

He retired from the national team during the 2009 SAFF Championship, after a fallout with the international team manager George Kottan.

International statistics

Honours

Pakistan Telecommunication
* Pakistan National Football Challenge Cup: 2003

Khan Research Laboratories
* Pakistan Premier League: 2009–10
*National Challenge Cup: 2009

K-Electric
* Pakistan Premier League: 2014–15

Pakistan
* South Asian Games Gold: 2004, 2006

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Essa, Muhammad
1983 births
Living people
Pakistani footballers
Pakistan international footballers
Pashtun people
People from Killa Abdullah District
WAPDA F.C. players
Afghan FC Chaman players
Khan Research Laboratories F.C. players
K-Electric F.C. players
Footballers at the 2002 Asian Games
Footballers at the 2006 Asian Games
Association football forwards
South Asian Games gold medalists for Pakistan
Asian Games competitors for Pakistan
South Asian Games medalists in football