U. Sharaf Ali (born 30 May 1964) is a former Indian International football player from Malappuram district,

Kerala Kerala ( ; ) is a state on the Malabar Coast of India. It was formed on 1 November 1956, following the passage of the States Reorganisation Act, by combining Malayalam-speaking regions of the erstwhile regions of Cochin, Malabar, South ...

. His playing position was defender. Sharaf played for

Calicut University The University of Calicut, also known as Calicut University, is a state-run public university headquartered at Tenhipalam in Malappuram district of the state of Kerala, India. Established in 1968, it is the first university to be set up in nor ...

during his college days. On 6 February 2023,he was appointed as the President of Kerala State Sports Council. Sharaf Eli joined

Kerala Police The Kerala Police is the law enforcement agency for the Indian state of Kerala. Kerala Police has its headquarters in Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital. The motto of the force is "Mridhu Bhave Dhrida Kruthye" which means "Soft in Temperamen ...

. Several leading Indian players including, V. P. Sathyan, C. V. Pappachan, and

I. M. Vijayan Inivalappil Mani Vijayan (born 25 April 1969), also known by the nickname Kalo Harin (Blackbuck), is a former professional football player who also captained the India national football team. He played as a striker, where he formed a successf ...

were his teammates in Kerala Police Team. They played a major role in strengthening the Kerala State Team during the 1990s and helped Kerala to win Santosh Trophy in 1992 and 1993. He was a Police commandant in Kerala. In 1994, Sharaf played for the Indian national side against

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

in the

FIFA World Cup The FIFA World Cup, often simply called the World Cup, is an international association football competition contested by the senior men's national teams of the members of the ' ( FIFA), the sport's global governing body. The tournament ha ...

qualifying rounds held at

Korea Korea ( ko, 한국, or , ) is a peninsular region in East Asia. Since 1945, it has been divided at or near the 38th parallel, with North Korea (Democratic People's Republic of Korea) comprising its northern half and South Korea (Republic o ...

and

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delta i ...

. Now, he is in RRRF and functions as Police Commandant.

References

Indian men's footballers India men's international footballers Malayali people Footballers from Kerala People from Malappuram district 1964 births Living people Men's association football defenders {{Kerala-stub