Tarif Saikh Ahmed (born 2 May 1982) is a former Indian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby le ...

who played as a

striker Striker or The Strikers may refer to: People *A participant in a strike action *A participant in a hunger strike *Blacksmith's striker, a type of blacksmith's assistant *Striker's Independent Society, the oldest mystic krewe in America People wi ...

. He spent most of his career with

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

based club

ONGC The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) is a central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas, Government of India. It is headquartered in New Delhi. ONGC was founded on 14 August 1956 by the ...

. He had also played for

Mohun Bagan Mohun Bagan Athletic Club is an Indian professional sports club based in Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1889, its football section is one of the oldest in India and Asia. The club is most notable for its victory over East Yorkshire Regiment ...

, Mohammedan S.C.,

Tollygunge Agragami Tollygunge Agragami Football Club is an Indian professional Association football, football club based in Tollygunge, Kolkata, West Bengal. Founded in 1943, the club primarily competes in the Calcutta Football League, Calcutta Premier Division L ...

, and Mahindra United. Ahmed also played internationally for

India India, officially the Republic of India (Hindi: ), is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by area, the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world. Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the so ...

from 2006 to 2007.

Club career

Born in

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, Ahmed began his career with

National Football League The National Football League (NFL) is a professional American football league that consists of 32 teams, divided equally between the American Football Conference (AFC) and the National Football Conference (NFC). The NFL is one of the ...

side

after coming through their youth side. After just one season however, Ahmed left Mohun Bagan to join local rivals

Mohammedan ''Mohammedan'' (also spelled ''Muhammadan'', ''Mahommedan'', ''Mahomedan'' or ''Mahometan'') is a term for a follower of Muhammad, the Islamic prophet. It is used as both a noun and an adjective, meaning belonging or relating to, either Muham ...

. He spent one season with Mohammedan before moving once again to

. He scored his first goal in the National Football League with Tollygunge on 10 April 2005. His 83rd minute goal against

Churchill Brothers Churchill Brothers FC Goa, or simply known as Churchill Brothers, is an Indian professional football club based in Margao, Goa, that competes in the I-League, alongside Goa Professional League. Founded in 1988 in Margao, the club usually part ...

however was not enough as his side would lose 2–4. Tollygunge Agragami were then relegated after the 2004–05 season and Ahmed returned to Mohammedan who were promoted to the NFL themselves. In 2007, Ahmed joined

and joined Mahindra United on loan in the newly formed

I-League The I-League (known as Hero I-League for sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp) is the second-tier men's professional football competition of the Indian football league system. It is currently contested by 12 clubs across the country with the w ...

. During the 2007–08 season, Ahmed scored just once, against Sporting Goa on 14 December 2007. While with ONGC, Ahmed also represented

in the

Santosh Trophy The Santosh Trophy, officially known as Hero Senior Men's National Football Championship due to sponsorship ties with Hero MotoCorp, is a state-level football competition contested by the state associations and government institutions under ...

. In 2009, Ahmed helped ONGC earn promotion to the

by finishing as champions in the I-League 2nd Division. Ahmed also finished the season as the 2nd Division second best scorer. In 2012, Ahmed began to captain West Bengal in the Santosh Trophy. In 2015, Ahmed moved back to West Bengal to play for

Southern Samity Southern Samity is an Indian professional football club from Kolkata which was founded in 1945, and is also based in Siliguri in North Bengal. During that time, apart from sports they are also involved in various cultural activities. The club c ...

in the Calcutta Football League. By 2017, Ahmed was back playing with ONGC in the local leagues.

International career

Ahmed has three international caps representing

. He made his senior debut on 15 November 2006 in an

2007 AFC Asian Cup The 2007 AFC Asian Cup was the 14th edition of the men's AFC Asian Cup, a quadrennial international football tournament organised by the Asian Football Confederation (AFC). The finals were held from 7 to 29 July 2007. For the first time in its h ...

qualifier against

Yemen Yemen (; ar, ٱلْيَمَن, al-Yaman), officially the Republic of Yemen,, ) is a country in Western Asia. It is situated on the southern end of the Arabian Peninsula, and borders Saudi Arabia to the Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, north and ...

. He came on as a substitute for Manjit Singh as India were defeated 1–2.

Coaching career

In May 2019, Ahmed participated in the

AIFF Audio Interchange File Format (AIFF) is an audio file format standard used for storing sound data for personal computers and other electronic audio devices. The format was developed by Apple Inc. in 1988 based on Electronic Arts' Interchange File ...

"D" Coaching License course in

Personal life

Ahmed is the older brother of Indian international midfielder

Jewel Raja Jewel Raja Shaikh (born 19 January 1990) is an Indian professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for South United in the I-League 2nd Division. Career Early career Born in Budge Budge, Kolkata, Jewel though had a keen inter ...

Career statistics

International

Honours

índia *

Nehru Cup The Nehru Cup was an international association football tournament organised by the All India Football Federation (AIFF), named after the first Prime Minister of India, Jawaharlal Nehru. It was launched in 1982, but was not held from 1998 to ...

2007 File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...

ONGC * I-League 2nd Division:

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ahmed, Tarif 1982 births Living people Indian men's footballers Men's association football forwards Mohun Bagan SG players Mohammedan SC (Kolkata) players Tollygunge Agragami FC players ONGC FC players Mahindra United FC players Southern Samity players National Football League (India) players I-League players I-League 2nd Division players Footballers from Kolkata India men's international footballers India men's youth international footballers