Afghanistan squad revealed

The Afghanistan Football Federation, on Tuesday, named the 23 players for the joint qualifiers of the 2022 FIFA World Cup and 2023 AFC Asian Cup, with head coach Anoush Dastgir drawing on players far and wide for his squad.

With players based from Cyprus to Canada and the Maldives to Melbourne, there are few parts of the globe unrepresented in Dastgir’s side, who will face Qatar in Doha on September 5 before taking on Bangladesh on September 10 for their home game in Dushanbe, Tajikistan.

Afghanistan’s squad members ply their trade in a total of 14 nations, with the Germany-based quartet of Zubayr Amiri, Abassin Alikhil, Hassan Amin and uncapped goalkeeper Hellal Hosseini making it the most common home, ahead of the Afghan Premier League, which provides three players, all from champions Toofan Harirod.

Maldives-based defender Zohb Islam Amiri is the oldest man in Afghanistan’s squad, with his 32 years of age making him older than even head coach Dastgir, who is only 29.

Afghanistan are currently 149th in FIFA rankings while Bangladesh are 182nd.